School safety in spotlight after pupil found dead

Premier Alan Winde File picture: African News Agency (ANA)

Premier Alan Winde File picture: African News Agency (ANA)

Published Jan 18, 2020

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Cape Town - With the academic year in full swing and already a death, safety at schools is again under the spotlight. This follows on the death of Grade 8 Parktown Boys’ High learner Enoch Mpianzi, whose body was found on Friday after he went missing during an orientation camp.

At the provincial matric awards ceremony at Leeuwenhof on Thursday, Premier Alan Winde said safety at schools was top of the list of areas that needed attention in education.

Provincial education spokesperson Kerry Mauchline said one of the measures to be introduced was a “risk classification tool”, developed in consultation between the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), the City of Cape Town, SAPS and Department of Community Services (Docs).

This tool would allow the department to identify and classify existing and emerging safety risks to facilitate the deployment of security infrastructure and other resources when and where they were most needed. The City’s school resource officer (SRO) initiative is a collaboration between the WCED and schools that began in 2013, based on best practice in the US.

The presence of SROs helped alleviate problems dealing with school violence, particularly where there was a high rate of gangsterism,” said Mauchline. WCED has 53 schools involved, with 136 SROs. It is also working on expanding the existing extensive safety initiatives in the coming year, particularly looking at physical school security (for example, perimeter fencing) at high-risk schools, and a holistic, preventative approach of instilling values in learners to prevent crime before it happens.

“Unfortunately, many of the safety risks are a result of community and gang violence which affects the safety environment of our schools. Addressing these issues goes beyond our mandate and control. We are therefore reliant on other government departments and law enforcement agencies such as SAPS, Department of Justice and City of Cape Town law enforcement,” she said.

A priority committee on school safety, as delegated by the SAPS Provincial Joints, also provides a platform for sharing information and better co- ordination of responses in emergencies between WCED, Docs and SAPS, metro police and law enforcement.

The Safe Schools officials will continue to work closely with schools and partners in every sector to implement plans to safeguard public schools. The programme includes security infrastructure mechanisms such as perimeter fencing, electronic access control, burglar bars, metal detectors and monitored alarm systems linked to an armed response service.

Atlantis matriculant Ridah Khan received special attention at the ceremony, where he was presented with a ministerial award. Ridah was attacked several times by gang members while on his way to school and had to write some exams at a police station.

During one of the many attacks, he was knocked unconscious and suffered memory loss. He attended Tegniese Hoërskool Proteus and received R10000 for achieving a Bachelor pass under very trying circumstances.

Education MEC Debbie Schäfer said the Western Cape’s Bachelor pass rate for the 2019 National Senior Certificate stood at 46.3% - the highest and an increase from 42.3% last year.

“This means that more of our learners will be able to access tertiary education, and is an important indicator of the quality of education learners receive. No regression here,” she said.

But the day belonged to Madelein Dippenaar, who with Gary Allen from Rondebosch Boys’ High and Anuoluwa Makinde from Milnerton High, scooped the top three positions in the province and country, respectively.

Madelein, from Paarl Gimnasium Hoërskool, achieved a 96.9% aggregate and secured the prize as South Africa’s top matric pupil. She plans to study for a BSc degree in molecular biology at Stellenbosch University.

Weekend Argus spoke to Gary, who said he had no “winning formula”.

“It’s just about hard work. I started working from the get-go. I expected to be maybe top at school, but placing second in the country was beyond what I expected,” he said. Gary plans to study electrical engineering at Stellenbosch.

Anoulowa said she wanted to do well but never expected to be in the top three. “My parents and principal and everyone at my school are so happy. It’s a big deal for me because there are so many people that did really well, and I am so happy.”

She plans to study mechatronics (a combination of mechanical and electrical engineering) at Stellenbosch.

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