There are a number of issues that plague the South African school system, most notably the problems surrounding poor infrastructure and increasing instances of violence in schools.
"Safety in schools is a priority, and members of the Equal Education (EE) organization are on a mission, "seeking sanctuary in Western Cape schools."
The group presented the findings (on 19 September 2023) collected from visits to various schools across the province, highlighting observations made regarding learner mental health resources, school infrastructure and safety in schools.
Who Is Equal Education (EE)?
Equal Education (EE) is a member-based, mass democratic movement of learners, post-school youth, parents and community members, striving for quality and equality in South African education system through activism and research. EE tackles issues such bullying in schools, school infrastructure and overcrowding in classrooms, amongst other problems.
Between August and September 2019, EE visited 40 public schools located across various areas of the Cape Town Metro.
The objectives of these visits, as listed by the EE, include:
- Determine and identify the types of violence perpetrated at these schools
- Identify and investigate contributing factors to the recurrence of violence at schools
- Understand whether these schools are adequately supported by national and provincial governments to create safe and resilient environments for learners, as well as assess if interventions implemented at national and provincial levels translate to positive shifts in experiences of school safety in the Western Cape.
Steps The Department Of Education Has Taken To Ensure School Safety
National School Safety Framework
The National School Safety Framework (NSSF) enables schools to create ways of reporting incidents, work together with external groups such as the South African Police Service (SAPS), the Department of Social Development, and non-profit organizations. Furthermore, the NSSF assists in creating school safety policies and plans to deal with safety issues.
The Department has trained schools on the implementation of the National School Safety Framework (NSSF). The training is accredited by the South African Council of Educators and it is granted 15 CPD points.
However, EE's findings reveal that there is a significant gap in knowledge and awareness of the National School Safety Framework (NSSF), which the Department of Basic Education identifies as its primary strategic school safety intervention.
Additionally, many schools do not have the necessary support, safety structures, and procedures in place to properly implement it.
Safe Schools Call Centre
The Department also launched a call centre/hotline for learners and educators to make use of and report any incidents of violence on school grounds.
But, data obtained from the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) showed that almost no learners used the hotline to report issues.
EE's report states that:
- Learners made up just 0.1% of the over 5 000 calls made to the call center between 2019 and 2020.
- Some schools that did not find the call centre helpful in addressing issues blamed it on the high call volume, which made it so that they had to wait a long time to receive assistance and, in some cases, did not get any feedback on the problems they had reported.
Violence In Schools Continues To Escalate
Over the past few years, schools across the country have been under siege with the safety of learners and teachers continuing to be threatened on a daily basis.
The South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) spokesperson on teacher and learner violence in schools, Nomusa Cembi says that violence has definitely been on the rise in schools across several provinces with new incidents reported very week.
Cembi stressed that the issue has become so severe that some teachers have contemplated leaving the teaching profession, whilst most have requested to move to other schools where these incidents are not prevalent.
She went on to explain that violence in schools manifests in many ways, often including threats, physical violence, harassments, bullying as well as sexual assault.
Lately we have been seeing physical violence from the community, parents as well as criminals coming into schools and robbing and harassing teaches. It comes in many forms, its not only learners but parents and criminals have also come onto schools to violate teachers.
Violent incidents disclosed to the school administration in the year prior to the school visit and shared with EE at the time of their visit, include:
- Physical assault resulting in serious injury to a learner (20%)
- Stabbings (38%)
- Sexual harassment (23%)
- Physical assault against a teacher by a learner (18%)
- Physical assault resulting in significant injury to a teacher (8%)
Poor School Infrastructure Makes Learning Difficult
While there are schools with excellent infrastructure, there are quite a number without basic services such as water and sanitation.
Many South African learners are forced to attend school within run-down buildings, often worrying that they will collapse; resulting in injuries or death. Learners often have no other choice but to use unsafe sanitation facilities, such as plain pit toilets, or relieve themselves in nearby fields.
Schools mostly located in remote or rural areas have had to deal with these unpleasant circumstances for years now, despite the assurance of the Education Department that a plan is underway through two programmes, namely the Sanitation Appropriate For Education (SAFE) Initiative and the Accelerated School Infrastructure Delivery Initiative (ASIDI).
Vice-President of the National Professional Teacher's Organization of South Africa (NAPTOSA), Tinus Du Preez, previously stated that there is a general problem of infrastructure in our schools.
Du Preez added that the responsibility to ensure that functional and decent infrastructure within schools lies with the National Department, as that is where the funding comes from.
There are funds available, these are conditional grants for infrastructure development; and especially in schools which are no-fee paying schools, where should they get the funds from?
According to EE, Regulation 9 of the Norms and Standards for school infrastructure require schools to have perimeter fencing and at least one other form of safety and security, be it a security guard/patrol or an alarm system.
The findings of the security infrastructure assessment from the school visits revealed that schools in the Western Cape are at various stages of compliance with the school infrastructure law.
All 40 schools that were visited and surveyed had some form of fencing.
However, further observations revealed that some schools had fences that did not meet specific requirements set out in the school infrastructure law.
11 of the schools visited had fences that did not meet the 1.8 meters height standard; and five schools had fences that did not cover the entire boundary of the school, as required by law. The fences were found to be of good quality and in decent conditions.
Mental Health Support In South African Schools
Studies suggest that many children and adolescents in South Africa are not always taught social and emotion skills at home. This has negative impacts on how learners engage with their peers and educators.
In addition to physical safety, learners also need to feel emotionally and mentally healthy. Psychosocial services are both about supporting learners and proactively addressing the psychosocial issues that contribute to in-school violence.
According to EE,
To ensure learners’ mental health and wellbeing, it is necessary to have experts who comprehend the social issues, stressors, and systems that cause learners to struggle and know how to assist them in overcoming those issues.
The provision of psychosocial support services to learners not only benefits their personal growth but also increases their involvement and inclusion in the classroom.
Recommendations Made By Equal Education
- The Department of Basic Education (DBE) should commission a fully-funded revised round of the National School Violence Study (NSVS survey)
- The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) should coordinate with the DBE to ensure urgent and full compliance with the security requirements in the school infrastructure law by ensuring adequate access control measures are in place to safeguard school premises and school community
- The WCED should support schools in establishing functional safety committees in schools
- The WCED should assist schools to bolster the provision of and access to psychosocial support services
- The WCED should improve the knowledge and internal capacity of schools on national and provincial school safety interventions such as the National School Safety Framework (NSSF) and the Safe Schools Programme.
