Education department combats social ills after wave of school stabbings

Following a wave of school violence, the department of education has hosted a round table discussion with several officials in an attempt to find ways of saving Gauteng pupils from social ills as well as to improve learner performance.

The discussion is part of the departments Mabaphephe (Let them be safe) initiative aimed at combating social ills in schools across the country.

Department of education’s school management chief director Elize Froneman highlighted the societal anger that seemed to intensify and called for an inclusive methodology supported by parents and pupils in order pave a better way forward.

She noted the expulsion rates in schools and said they were an indicative cry for help from pupils. It pained her to see a grade 3 or 4 pupil being recommended for expulsion in behavioural fashion as such actions were indicative of a behavioural cry for help.

“If a child is bullying, if a child is stealing, that is already a cry for help. Someone has not headed the call. Not a mom or dad at home, not an aunty or community has helped. The child is taking out their frustration” and no one is listening.

She said the department would maintain their priority of ensuring pupil safety in schools as flagged out in their curriculum goals.

South African Principals Association (Sapa) acting president Tim Hlongwane said two of the issues faced by school officials was the lack of police visibility and parental involvement in schools. He mentioned an example were a KwaZulu-Natal pupil was killed which resulted in another pupil killed the next day as part of an alleged revenge killing.

“These are things that teachers and officials have no powers to stop.”

This, according to him, highlighted a dire need for involvement from law enforcement as well as parents in schools.

“Where parents are involved, no matter how difficult the child is, you’re able to work something out and help the child. Where there is no involvement from parents, you tend to have a lot more problems. The child will be expelled from one school to another, without any headway.”

Emphasised in the discussion, was how pupils were often put in the centre of the problem as opposed to studying the environment that could have contributed to the child’s behaviour. Teachers were highlighted to also suffer attacks from learners, a behaviour which urgently needed to change as teachers were the proxy of parents and needed to be respected.

The discussion comes after a wave of attacks in schools in two weeks. One pupil was killed after two stabbings at a KwaZulu-Natal school this week. A grade 11 pupil from Eastwood Secondary School in Pietermaritzburg was stabbed on Tuesday afternoon allegedly by fellow pupils. The pupil later died.

At least three other cases of stabbings at schools were reported last week. A 15-year-old was arrested for stabbing a classmate in Isiphingo, Durban. A 16-year-old boy was also stabbed at a high school in Mossel Bay. Another pupil died after being stabbed in the chest with a pair of scissors by a classmate at the Thuto Tiro Comprehensive School in Sebokeng.

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