South Africa’s education system has been blamed for school violence that in the past week left one pupil dead and another with multiple skull fractures.
A sense of spirituality and humanity is lacking in the educational system of South Africa, a Durban-based anti-drug forum said on Wednesday.
Teachers lack empathy and the South African educational system needs to stop churning out workers, said forum chairperson Sam Pillay.
A 16-year-old boy died when he was taken off life support machines after being injured in a fist-fight on the South Coast on Saturday.
In the North West, a Rustenburg matric pupil had to undergo surgery on Wednesday after being assaulted by a fellow pupil on Monday, Beeld reported.
Despite life-orientation programmes in schools there are still pregnancies, suicides and violence, ”and at alarming proportions, too,” said Pillay.
”Western countries are educating kids for careers and are forgetting that these children are just children. They [Western society] are not engaging their hearts and minds. What about developing their personalities?”
Children love attending school in India where pupils are taught basic yoga, about themselves, guidance counselling and to live at peace with other cultures, religions and mindsets.
Use of these principles has encouraged 3 300 scholars to voluntarily attend rehabilitation at his drug rehabilitation centre in Chatsworth in the past year, Pillay said.
The KwaZulu-Natal school attack was ”a sad indictment of the values of society and the discipline in schools”, added National Professional Teachers’ Association of South Africa president Dave Balt.
”Clearly, this is not a problem that can be solved by parents or teachers on their own.
”The problem clearly runs far deeper than that which happens in schools. It is a symptom of a decline in the values entrenched in society at large.”
He blamed escalating violence in schools on, among other things, the influence of violence shown on television, easy accessibility to drugs in schools, an increase in the number of Aids orphans and child-headed households, poverty and overcrowded classrooms. — Sapa