Children or adults going on the rampage firing bullets at learners in the United States has been commonplace over the past few years. Shootings involving pupils in the United Kingdom has repeatedly made headlines or the news on television and radio, among the most tragic being the massacre at Dunblane in Scotland when scores were wounded and 14 children killed after a crazed gunman fired randomly.
South African schools are not immune from violence within the schooling system. A number of tragic incidents involving educators or pupils have occurred over the past few years.
Violence in schools is a serious problem, not only in South Africa, but internationally. One wonders what has happened to the gun free lobbyists whose verbal bullets have been silenced?
Whether it involves innocent children caught in the crossfire of gang violence in the Cape or learners in the crossfire of township tension, the problems should be addressed with urgency.
The national Department of Education has among its goals a desire to create a safe and tolerant learning environment that celebrates innocence and values human dignity. The department is far from achieving this, and infact, has not even proceeded beyond the starting blocks.
According to the programme of implementation for education minister Kader Asmal’s Tirisano campaign, the department was due to have initiated a safe schools project in March, an inter-governmental plan to link schools to police stations, partnerships between business and schools and introduce regulations on access by April. None of these four pillars towards safer schooling has been achieved. Some schools have set up hotlines to police stations set up and declared playgrounds gun free zones.
In the document containing proposals relating to access to schools, Asmal says education may not take place in a hostile, unsafe environment where learners, educators, parents and departmental officials are not safe. It is, therefore, incumbent on Asmal to devise measures that will ensure the safety of everyone at school.
The document offers guidelines for principals to ensure schools become safer and outlaws carrying of dangerous objects on school premises. In terms of these regulations, all public schools are hereby declared dangerous object and drug free zones. A police official may, without warrant search any public building or premises if he or she has a reasonable suspicion that a dangerous object or illegal drugs may be present in the public building or premises in contravention of the regulations.
The document was released in January and the deadline for submissions from educators, parents, pupils and education stakeholders closed in February. But, there is still no word on the next step toward ensuring secure schooling.
Despite the swiftness with which Asmal operates, one gets the impression that the education train run by his officials or task teams is running on poor performing fuel. The school’s security policy, no matter how good, will be too little too late if it is implemented after another fatality involving educators or learners at any of our schools. Racing on South African roads may kill, but its also tragic when the lack of speed in finalising possible life saving security measures results in lives being lost.
— The Teacher/M&G Media, Johannesburg, May 2001.
M&G Supplements