Inner city schools in America are exactly the same, full of drugs, violence and absent parents. They are overcrowded, short of text books and teaching supplies. Corporations tried adopting schools and supplied all the materials, the students destroyed them, the people from the surrounding neighborhoods looted them. When I was teaching there the students would come with no lunch money, no pencils no paper but they were wearing $100 sneakers. I was threatened with violence from students and parents. Children were living in crack houses, with prostitute mothers, only a handful knew who their fathers were, most had as many as 8 siblings all living with various relatives, many showed clear signs of FAS or of being born crack addicted.

In my opinion, the government intervention started much too late if the child managed to make it to school.

The mothers should have been required to take job training, and family planning classes before they were given the first monthly welfare check. Free condoms and birth control should be part of the aid package they receive every month. Preventing all the unwanted pregnancies and unprotected sex is what will reduce poverty in any country.

South African Children facing the poverty under the governance of ANC lead by Jakob Zuma?