Durban - South Africa comes second after Jamaica with the most incidents of violence at schools.
This and other shocking statistics were revealed by the South African Council of Educators (Sace) chairwoman, Veronica Hofmeester, during the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) seminar on violence at schools, which was held in Durban on Wednesday.
The conference was attended by principals from all over KwaZulu-Natal.
Hofmeester, who is also the vice-president of Sadtu, said according to reports, 22% of pupils in South Africa had been threatened with violence, assaulted, robbed or sexually assaulted at school.
She said deploying police was a short-term solution as contributing factors went beyond just the school gates. Principals needed to be able to deal with societal issues in the communities they worked in.
“The National School Violence study revealed that learners were perpetrators of 90% of the violence that happens in schools, whether against other learners or teachers,” she said.
Hofmeester believed a great deal of “subtle” school violence and intimidation went unreported.
The latest “General Household Survey: Focus on Schooling” report to be released by the Department of Basic Education showed that children in KwaZulu-Natal were more likely to experience violence, verbal abuse and corporal punishment at school than pupils living in seven other provinces in the country.
The data, released last month, revealed that 24% of the province’s children aged 7 to 18 had endured violence, verbal abuse and corporal punishment at school.
Technology has made the education landscape “sophisticated and complex”, making it difficult for teachers to monitor the influence of the internet and social media on pupils.
Some pupils have also become desensitised to violence - whenever they witness it they take out their cellphones and record it to post on the web.
Hofmeester said while pupils in the Western Cape said it was easy to bring weapons into schools, KwaZulu-Natal pupils said they had easy access to drugs and alcohol.
“Principals, you can be found in conflict of the law if you keep the dagga that you confiscated from pupils in your office drawer. We want our principals to protect themselves from such things.”
She said it broke her heart that incidents of violence committed by pupils against teachers were poorly reported because of fear, shame and because some principals were unable to deal with the incidents so teachers stopped reporting to them.
“The learner will swear at a teacher and when she reports to the principal, the head of school will also be sworn at. So violence has become normal to some of the teachers. The long-term impact of this is depression because these things erode both the professional and personal self-esteem of the victim.”
The Sace head said the “cost of violence is too expensive” because the long-term effects of school drop-outs, poor academic performance and repairing infrastructure cost the school and country money.
“(The) government needs to start training more teachers in the handling of bullying and violence in schools because teachers now have to be social workers, councillors, security guards and so on.”
Hofmeester also proposed the creation of alternative schools for violent children to help them acquire skills.
Principal Mamotsau Thipe, of Wiggins High in Mayville, said the Department of Education had a responsibility to hire a private security company to guard public schools that did not charge school fees, as the government subsidy did not provide funds for guards.
“Fence the schools so that hooligans don’t have free access to school premises. Substance abuse is also a big problem,” she said.
Teachers urged the government to provide social workers and psychologists, whose role would be the implementation of trauma counselling for teachers and pupils, modifying and shaping pupil behaviour, resolving fights and disputes and providing various other programmes that would mould pupils into responsible citizens.
The deputy director-general in the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education, Dr Enoch Nzama, said violence was a contributing factor to the poor academic performance at schools. He said the department was committed to working with trade unions to make schools safe places for teaching and learning.
Tips for teachers on staying legal and keeping safe:
* Never touch your pupils - especially not when angry.
* Never transport pupils in your car.
* Never be alone with one pupil in the room.
* Never be an internet/social media friend with pupils.
* Never ask a pupil out for a social occasion.
* Never use extreme physical activity as a form of punishment.
* Never use corporal punishment.
The Mercury