Cllr of Ward 19, Siphiwe Simelane along with ward committee members visited Nghunghunyani Secondary School on Tuesday 17 January.
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The purpose of the visit was to check if the school was ready to reopen and their challenges, in order for the ward Cllr to assist and meet the needs of the leaners as well as of the educators.
According to Deputy Principal of Nghunghunyani Secondary School, Thoko Mashaba, one of their biggest challenges is that most of their learners are angry and they come from child headed homes.
“We have discovered that our children are angry and frustrated. They form these gangs and end up hurting each other.
“Some of them are coming from child headed homes and when we call parents meeting, we can’t find ways to help them because there are no adults,” said Mashaba.
It is important that teachers foster positive relationships with their learners to create classroom environments to be more conducive to learning and meet learners’ developmental, emotional and academic needs.
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Mashaba said, “One of the reasons why our learners are so angry is because they live alone and have learned to protect themselves. In everything that they do, they fight to survive, which is why they turn violent to other learners.”
A school should be a safe space for learners because they spend almost 80% of their time under the supervision of their teachers.
“As educators we try to get them help and create a face space between them and us.
“We also reach out to social workers because we have become their second parents and we need to build a trusting relationship with our learners. If we want them to get better and focus at school,” said Mashaba.
The councillor and the community leadership are on a mission to help and assist young people in the community.“
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As part of the ward plan, we intent to visit these children headed homes to assess their challenges, because we cannot treat everyone with a blanket approach, assuming that everyone is the same.
“This will help us understand each family’s needs and how best we help them,” Simelane concluded.
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