Solutions to solving crisis of school violence hard to find

Johannesburg - A school should be a place where the safety of both learners and educators is guaranteed. However, it has turned into a place of horror as many witnessed their schoolmates lose their lives at the hands of another pupil.

Violence and crime issues have become prominent concerns in the last few years. The increasing rate of school violence has left many communities wounded, rendered some parents childless and left educators fearing for their lives.

Over 10 cases have recently been reported where another fatally stabbed a fellow pupil. The latest case is that of a General Smuts High School pupil in Vereeniging where a learner was stabbed to death on his way to a taxi rank.

Teachers are always in the line of fire when these incidents occur as they are the first respondents and are not fully equipped to deal with such situations. The traumatic experience of having to tend to a pupil whose peer had just been assaulted on school grounds may psychologically affect them for a long time.

Teachers feel let down by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) for not prioritising their safety and that of learners. These criminal and violent acts do not only leave teachers traumatised but lower students' overall achievement and academic excellence.

A teacher from TM Letlhake Secondary school in Westonaria, who spoke to the publication anonymously, said the violence at the school is alarming. And the department is not doing much to alleviate the situation.

“The department is failing us. They have promised to bring psychologists to the schools but have not done that. They wait for someone to die before taking action, and when they come, they shift the blame on us. They would ask where we were as educators when the attack took place. There is no real support at all. The department does not care about us,” said the teacher.

He said aside from socio-economic issues, gangsterism, bullying, harassment, and drug and alcohol abuse contribute to the violence crisis .

“Lack of furniture plays a significant role in these acts of violence. The perpetrators threaten those who do not exchange chairs and tell them to keep quiet or they will deal with them.

“Some learners trade furniture with others at a fee. (Due to a lack of chairs in some classrooms, ‘traders’ trade chairs for money, and if it is not paid, or traders are reported, the traders victimise those pupils). Adding on to this, some learners sell sweets and biscuits within the school and would give their fellow pupils these things on credit," he said.

The teacher added that when the debtor cannot pay, the creditor resorts to violence.

"Drugs are also another issue that makes these kids violent. Lastly, their backgrounds influence their behaviours. There are learners with anger issues because they come from child-headed households and feel robbed of their childhoods,” he said.

The school recently suspended about 22 girls who were said to be part of a gang that terrorised other learners. The suspensions came after a group of parents joined the educators and Community Policing Forum (CPF) members to help root out gang-affiliated pupils to ensure the safety of others.

Every morning, parents and CPF members serve as security and search learners to ensure they do not have weapons before entering the premises. The teacher said he was more worried about the safety of female teachers because of their vulnerability. He said learners are still stabbing one another, even though measures to prevent this have been implemented.

“Last month, three incidents occurred on three consecutive days. Another teacher here in Westonaria dislocated his shoulder while trying to break a fight. Schools are truly no longer safe. I worry about my female colleagues and new young teachers, at least for us male teachers, we can try to defuse the fights and walk away unharmed,” he said.

Furthermore, the teacher said introducing extra-mural activities such as sporting codes, music, and art classes might be a step in the right direction, but only if the learners come on board.

“We have a programme called Jam Bam at the school, hoping to keep them away from trouble. The problem is that these learners are not participating. Those who want to participate in the structure are discouraged by their peers who mock them, and because they want to fit in, they end up not joining,” said the educator.

The DBE acknowledges that school violence is a prevalent issue that robs pupils of their right to education and safety. However, it refutes the claims that it rarely takes action or does not protect educators. DBE spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said there are thousands of school violence cases that it deals with daily, and there are measures put in place to eradicate the issues of violence in schools.

“The School Safety Framework is used to guide the different parties involved on what they need to do in such situations because violence is not an education matter. It cannot be dealt with by the department of education alone. We are in no position to address such a matter alone,” Mhlanga said.

In 2017, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) found that at least 247 million children are affected by school violence. Mhlanga said there are currently no accurate stats on the severity of the issues in local schools. He said the department's challenges are that some incidents happen outside school premises while learners are still in school uniform.

“It becomes problematic when the learners attack each other outside school premises because we do not control what happens after school hours. Until such time that we view this as a social matter that we need to deal with as a society, noting that we are teaching these kids that violence is the only way to deal with conflict through our actions, we need to interrogate our behaviour,” he said.

In July last year, the Gauteng Department of Education commissioned the Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance (MGSLG) to implement school safety programmes in its15 districts. The initiative was split into two phases, A and B. Phase A was focused on sampling 1 500 schools to assess how prevalent violence and crime is. The Phase B Advocacy programme, known as Iskolo Sethu (our school) has been started, and will be centred around developing guidelines that emphasise the creation of mechanisms to more effectively and promptly record, report, and manage safety and security issues in schools.

MGSLG said the findings were overwhelming and urgent interventions were recommended to the department, which has since committed funds to conduct Capacity building, Security Awareness Campaigns and Organisations of School Safety Summits at the district level, among other interventions.

MGSLG further indicated that the plan to deal with school violence centres around Advocacy and Capacity Building, which will help with the resuscitation of school safety committees, community members, CSOs and NGOs’ engagements.

"These precedent deliverables would create avenues for the sustainable management of school safety and security; as well as develop strategies and systems geared towards the improvement of schools, from stakeholders and communities’ responsiveness and responses in managing unsafe practices and curbing school violence," the organisation said.