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Violence at schools unacceptable scourge Manoshe Phasha, The New Age, Johannesburg, 26 May 2015 Violence in schools is on the rise, which makes it unacceptable that each day is met with reports of violent incidents in an environment that should be boasting of guaranteed safety for young people in their quest for knowledge. In recent days and indeed months, shocking incidents of theft, assault, bullying, sexual harassment, fighting, rape and even murder have dominated our media more than any of the positive issues on our school environment. What perturbs me is not only the fact that these cases happen during school hours and in the classroom, but also the fact that teachers are often victims of assaults at the hands of pupils, most especially female teachers. We have lost our moral compass when young people feel free to walk through the gates of our schools with weapons and drugs. The New Age reported last week that a police officer at Moroka in Soweto confiscated guns, knives and drugs from pupils, this while they sat smugly in their classrooms and that a 20-year-old man was stabbed to death on the school premises in Ennerdale, south of Johannesburg. Another newspaper report tells of how a male teacher humiliated a heavily pregnant pupil. She was forced to sit-out two English periods of 30 minutes on a cold concrete floor for two consecutive days as a form of punishment, after he first wanted her to do push-ups and frog jumps, allegedly also having called her a "dog". What kind of society are we really raising? The above mentioned cases do not anyhow appear in isolation in our school premises. They are just a few in the midst of thousands of others reported or not being reported in our schools. When these problems are not being properly addressed at school level, they become worse and could collapse not only the entire education system, but threaten the future of this country. Neglecting this scourge can be severely damaging. Pupils who are victims of such violence, at an extreme level, can end up committing suicide, it can increase the rate of drop-outs in high school when pupils feel unsafe; . Lead to depression and other psychological effects, poor academic performance and a lack of passion in education; . Lead to school bunking and gradually a nation of illiterate young people. The right to education as enshrined in our constitution is seriously undermined by bullies who want to keep our societal section of indefensible learners out of the classrooms and onto the streets. When on the streets, these children will become a nuisance and a costly burden to us, multiplying a society of criminals, prostitutes and murderers. We cannot afford such a bad investment on our children. This situation therefore unanimously calls for more urgent and effective intervention strategies to ensure our school premises are taken out of the hands of the bullies back to championing the cause of teaching and learning. Our teachers and pupils need to know and fully understand their roles and responsibilities both in the classroom and around the school premises. We need educational governance and leadership at school level to ensure hands-on progress and most significantly, ensuring that our schools become safer and more conducive environments of teaching and learning. This therefore, is a clear indication that curbing school violence would need a contribution from all stakeholders, pupil's, teachers, school governing body (SBG), parents, local police and education officials to come together and address the problem. Trust and communication are the best tools to expose violence risks and their symptoms. In cases where learners are bullied and report these cases but teachers decide to do nothing, these pupils need to know their next line of authoritative bodies to approach without any fear of being double victimized. Schools need to draft a memorandum of agreement, with a code of conduct to be entered into and therefore binding to all learners, teachers, SGBs, parents and the local police in the guaranteeing of safety policies and measures. Pupils need to commit themselves to a certain code of conduct, and parents need to commit themselves to assisting the school in how their kids' behaviour should be regulated. The SGBs' role should be to facilitate and manage these processes and ensure their effective application We need physical measures to address the scourge of violence in our schools. Such measures should include the installation of metal detectors in high risk schools to prevent weapon entry into the premises, the random patrols and police searches in schools, the installation of alarms, burglar doors, gates, high fences and securities within schools. Lastly, it would be advisable, and maybe a rigorous debate is needed, to establish a national platform at which pupils and victims of school violence could have a toll-free call centre to lodge school based violence and seek assistance and counselling, and be referred to psychological interventions, medical care where needed and even police action. . Manoshe Phasha is a researcher at Sadtu and these are his personal views From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/ -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. 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