According to crime statistics for the second quarter of 2022/23, a total of 83 rapes and 19 murders were committed on the premises of educational facilities across the country.
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 incidents being reported very week.
She 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.
Cembi explains that violence in schools manifests in many ways. It often includes 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.
She continues, “It comes in many forms, its not only learners but parents and criminals have also come onto schools to violate teachers.”
Phyco-social Support Needed In 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.
Educational psychologist Megan Naude explains that violence in schools impacts the learning and teaching processes in a multi-dimensional way.
Naude says that these issues impacts both the learners and teachers ability to maximise their potential.
A lot of it goes back to various different things, but there’s definitely a need for value driven education and for education to be focused on teaching learners how to deal with these social emotional challenges.
She says there is a big need for learners to be taught emotional skills, as learners are facing various challenges at home and within social environments. "Therefore, the need to be resilient is also quite big."
Naude continues, “Teaching skills such as how to communicate, how to manage their emotions and how resolve conflict and solve problems, how to make good decisions and understanding the consequences of our decisions are all things that we generally would learn at home.”
In most cases learners are not caught these skills, adds Naude. This is why it is crucial to teach skills in schools.
She notes, “We sometimes have to be very explicit in teaching these skills to our learners in a very practical and real way.”
SADTU says the call for phyco-social support and services at schools is increasing and they have engaged with the education department to put additional measures in place.
However, not enough is being done to provide support to teachers and learners. They feel that the department is not investing enough into these support facilities.
