OPINION | Communities must join efforts for safety at schools

Recent incidents of violence involving learners in Gauteng schools are extremely concerning. Violence turns schools into unsafe environments for learners and educators and negatively affects the development of learners as well as the ability of teachers to do their jobs effectively.

A few days ago, there was a violent clash between learners from West Ridge High School and Hoërskool Roodepoort, which left the latter’s school principal and some learners injured. This was unfortunately not an isolated incident. Many other violent incidents have been reported recently at schools across the province.

After the Roodepoort incident, the Gauteng education department engaged the police in Roodepoort to support both schools and to conduct unannounced search-and-seizure operations in an effort to enhance safety.

The violence in our schools reflects what is happening in our communities. This is a societal problem that requires all stakeholders to play their part in creating a safe schooling environment. It cannot be left to schools alone to restore discipline and safety.

The Gauteng provincial government takes school safety very seriously and has put in place various policies and measures to ensure the safety of all learners, educators and relevant stakeholders. However, despite all these efforts, we continue to witness growing cases of violence in and around our schools.

The national government has relaunched the safe schools’ protocol, which is a joint initiative between the basic education department and the police to create safer and more child-friendly schools across the country.

As part of this initiative, all schools will be linked to local police stations and supported through school safety committees, whose role is to develop comprehensive school safety and violence prevention plans.

The initiative aims to lead efforts to identify school safety needs, select appropriate interventions, garner support from school and community stakeholders for the safety plan, and monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the initiatives.

In addition to this, visible policing has been increased around schools, particularly in hotspot areas, and before and after school to strengthen the protection of learners and teachers. While the police have an important role to play, school safety is a joint responsibility between the police, school management and the school community.

The safe schools’ protocol highlights the principle of shared responsibility, where families, communities and all sectors of society play a role. Every school principal, district official, station commissioner, school governing body member and every learner should actively contribute to building a culture of safety in schools.

The creation of a safe and conducive learning environment has reached a critical point. Our learners must be allowed to develop and ultimately reach their full potential without any hindrance.

The Gauteng government is fully committed to acting with urgency to protect learners, teachers, and school infrastructure. In July, Gauteng education MEC Matome Chiloane allocated R2.9bn to ensure safety in schools.

He said the government’s comprehensive approach to creating safe schools includes the deployment of security officers to 1,500 schools; sports, arts, and culture integration to develop physical, creative, and emotional capabilities; health and wellness support, including school health programmes; and pro-poor interventions.

This budget allocation demonstrates the provincial government’s commitment to fighting the scourge of school violence and reaffirms that there is no place for thuggery, drug-use, sexual harassment and other criminal acts in schools. All these ills carry the potential to deprive our learners of their inherent constitutional rights to life, education, equality and dignity.

* Dlamini is a communicator in the office of the Gauteng premier