The director general in the Department of Education is in denial about a crisis in the school system, the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) said on Thursday.
This comes after Duncan Hindle on Wednesday ”attacked” the SAIRR for its statements highlighting the fact that most South African children do not feel safe at school.
”According to Mr Hindle, ‘feeling something does not make it so’. He seeks to dismiss the data we published on the grounds that it is derived from perceptions — indeed it was,” said the SAIRR in a statement.
It said the survey cited was an international one that showed only 23% of South African pupils felt safe at school, as opposed to 72% in Norway, the country where pupils felt safest.
”Denying a problem does not make it go away, nor does Hindle’s personal opinion outweigh those of the pupils surveyed.
”They, after all, attend school, whereas he does not. It would indeed be most surprising if school children did not share the fear that permeates South Africa because of its very high violent crime rates.”
The SAIRR further accused Hindle of contradicting himself: ”He refers to legislation providing for the search and seizure of dangerous weapons and drugs at schools. He also says his department has asked the community to support its campaign to build ‘safe and caring schools’. Why do all this if feelings of insecurity at school are merely inaccurate perceptions?”
The SAIRR said that various other surveys showed the education provided by the department was among the worst in the world and advised Hindle to ”concentrate on fixing all aspects of schooling in South Africa rather than hitting out so defensively and irrationally at legitimate criticism”.
The Young Communist League (YCL) said it strongly believed the report by the SAIRR would serve as a call to the Ministry of Education to officially release the outcomes of the School Safety Symposium held last year, as well as plans for implementation of strategies discussed.
”We urge the Department of Education to acknowledge the problems of school violence and appreciate the report by SAIRR as a base to qualitatively respond to this school violence catastrophe, which has destabilised our education system in recent years.”
The YCL said the ”denialist and dismissive approach” to issues that needed political intervention and leadership would exacerbate problems that could easily be resolved.
It has also requested a meeting with Minister of Education Naledi Pandor to discuss critical issues that affected education in the country, including the issue of school violence. — Sapa