Editor,

RE: "Performance: Why distance to school matters” (The New Times, July 6).

We who trekked to school over 10 km away barefooted know the impact it had on ourselves and the community’s welfare.

I blame parents of these children who are driven to school, spoon-feed them on delicacies and make them miss attendance for a mere or pretended headache.

Those are inadequate liabilities and time will prove me right.

The body (and the mind is part of the body) requires strenuous exertion for it to bring out the best.

As a liberation war veteran, I know that those who were accustomed to simple life were very difficult to train; let alone form into real aggressive combat soldiers. These schools without even playgrounds are a pretense.

No wonder, today’s school child is so mediocre that parents and teachers are at each other outdoing in the blame-game.

How else can you explain a master’s degree holder who cannot write an application letter, or graduate lawyers and judges who cannot speak either French or English?

Rwasubutare