The scourge of violence in schools is a growing cause for concern for many parents and education advocacy groups with at least seven pupils reported to have lost their lives at the hands of fellow pupils since the beginning of the year.
While the department of education puts the blame squarely on parents and violence in society, experts have warned that the bad behaviour of teachers, unsupervised classrooms, use of drugs and alcohol also contribute to pupils’ ill conduct at school.
“Yes, school violence is a societal issues but government has a role to play. It’s too easy for them to say parents have sent them bad kids when we all know that teachers are not in classrooms often enough. There is also an issue of bad teachers who use corporal punishment or sexually abuse pupils. We need to take the focus off the actions of learners and rather look at the environment they are in,” said professor Catherine Ward from the University of Cape Town's (UCT’s) social development department.
Police have had to investigate at least seven cases of school stabbings in the past five weeks, of which four resulted in the death of pupils. Last week Phemelo More, 13, of Senzile Combined School in Hertzogville, Free State, and another Grade 11 pupil from Magoletsa High School in Limpopo, lost their lives after being stabbed by fellow pupils. Last week a pupil from Ladysmith Secondary School in KwaZulu-Natal escaped with his life after he was stabbed on the shoulder by perpetrators who barged through the school gates.
Before that four other pupils – Qayiya Mgaye,16, from Pholosho Secondary School in Alexandra; another pupil,16, from Alexandra High School; Sibusiso Mazibuko from a school in Intabazwe (Harrismith), KwaZulu-Natal; and another Eastern Cape pupil,14 – also died in similar fashion between August and September this year.
Clinical psychologist Anele Siswana said the rise in such incidents suggests deep expressions of learned behaviour and societal consequences of what violence is and what it does.
“Chances are those learners did what they are familiar with as means of dealing with conflicts. In the same locations where these schools are located there are taverns. Whatever behaviour that’s displayed there learners are likely to identify with,” Siswana said.
He said if children are exposed to violence they learn easily and act it out.
“It’s even worse for children who don’t know other alternative ways of dealing with anger and rage when provoked. In situations where there are triggers a child is likely to express such behaviour when there are fights and arguments. This means children need to learn about anger management and tools of how to deal with its triggers and its expressions,” he said.
Ward said though studies have shown that schools were safer for children than their homes because of the amount of violence they witness from their families, there is more aggression being displayed by pupils at schools.
“Some of the violence in children is triggered by brain development. Children whose mothers were malnourished or used alcohol and tobacco while they were pregnant are likely to come into the world with brains that are impacted so that they have a harder time concentrating. It can set them on a trajectory where they become more aggressive and everything is so much harder for them. The child also needs good food nourishment to feed the brain for the first 24 years of life,” said Ward.
She suggested supervision and motivation at home and school as good interventions to prevent children from being exposed to drugs, violence and general acts of violence.
Basic education department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said: “It [violence] is a societal matter, not one for education. It is misleading to say that violence is a school matter. Many of the incidents involving children of school-going age happen outside school premises. That means society must account for the actions of their children.”
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