WATCH: Education MEC calls for collaboration against drugs in schools
“I was speaking to the principal, and he told me that he is expecting white and coloured learners for the first time in the school.”
The newly appointed MEC of Education Matome Chiloane calls for collaboration between various stakeholders to address the issue of drugs in schools.
He said there has to be a collaboration between the communities, the school management, parents, policing forms and the learners, adding that, it cannot be the department’s work alone they need to work together.
“As a community, if we know someone who is selling drugs or attempting to sell drugs to learners, we need to apprehend such person because we cannot allow it,” said Chiloane.
“Our children at this age are vulnerable. We cannot blame them when they are in that space but protect and isolate them from being exposed to such.
“We are working with the community and public safety, communities and parents to ensure that our schools remain drug-free. Most of our schools are drug-free, it is just one or two incidents.”
He assured that sports will return in schools as he explained that recently there was a lunch with the department of sports and the collaboration intends to bring back sports in schools.
“I can assure you that going forward, our kids are going to start participating in sports because that is where South Africa’s talent comes from.”
He said they are currently seeing that a 24-year-old person in football would be referred to as young talent. He further said when you are 24 you are no longer young in football terms. Young talent is aged 17 or 16.
“We will be able to focus on school sports,” said Chiloane responding to questions posed by journalists during his oversight visit at Katlehong School of Specialisation.
The purpose of Chiloane’s visit is to monitor the first day of school as learners return for the fourth and final term of 2022.
He was offered a guided tour around the school to see some of the projects the school is involved in, including agriculture.
“We are doing oversight of the reopening of schools. We chose this school because it is a model school in our province. It is a township school and is the best SOS school currently in our province,” said Chiloane.
“So far, as the department, we are happy with the work they are doing, and the discipline of the school and we are confident of positive matric and other academic results. This is one of those schools that demonstrate that township schools can be the best,” he continued.
“I was speaking to the principal and he told me that he is expecting white and coloured learners for the first time in the school. That is a dream for our four fathers who were speaking about transformation and social cohesion. This is a demonstration of how far we have come and where we are going.”
He said they want all schools to be the best and intend to spend time in schools that face challenges.
“We use to have a motto in Gauteng saying ‘Gauteng is the home of champions. This is a melting pot of everything we want to be the best, so all schools must be at this level.
“We are not saying this is the ultimate, but we are showing how far we can go. We will be ensuring that we address infrastructure challenges we know about it and we will come and sort it out,” he concluded.
