More than 1 000 schools country-wide are taking part in a programme to cut the epidemic of violence and crime among school learners. Hlayiseka is a R3,5-million project run by the education department in conjunction with the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention.
The project teaches teachers, local officials, parents and learners skills to identify threatening situations. It helps schools develop “safety plans”, report violent incidents and build relationships with the police and NGOs.
The department recently confirmed that more money will come in to expand the programme to more of the country’s 28 000 schools. But some provinces are finding their own money. Hlayiseka grew out of the Safe and Caring Schools pilot project run by the department last year. That R5-million initiative tackled nine of the country’s most crime-ridden schools, providing security upgrades, including metal detectors, lights, fencing and closed-circuit television.
The department said that this contributed to a dramatic improvement in academic standards. It cited Soweto’s notorious Senaoane High School, where 76% of matriculants passed last year compared with 40% in 2006, and Mountview High School in Cape Town, where the matric pass rate rose from 63% to 72% in the same period.
A survey published earlier this year by the Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention found that 15,3% of learners in grades three to 12 have been victims of school violence, while 11% of primary learners and 15% of secondary learners say they have been threatened with violence. The implication, said the centre’s Faeza Khan, was that many children live in constant fear of a violent confrontation at school.
The centre’s head, Eric Pelser, said it is difficult to gauge whether violence at schools has worsened since the study was conducted last year. A follow-up survey would be needed in two or three years to monitor the situation.
The Hlayiseka project involves three-day training courses in schools, which include a survey of learners’ perceptions of safety and danger areas, as well as a survey of teachers’ perceptions.
“We look at physical safety, such as whether toilets are being monitored,” Khan said. “We develop interventions. For example, if there is substance abuse, we look at a service provider who can help.” Meanwhile, it appears principals are increasingly using last year’s legislative amendment allowing the police to be called in unannounced to search for weapons and drugs. But learners can be arrested only in the presence of a parent.
The deputy principal of a high school in Roodepoort, Gauteng, said it is common to find learners with knives, screwdrivers and sometimes guns. Children who carry weapons are usually “learners who display irregular behaviour such as bunking classes and basically being unruly”.
The principal, who wishes not to be named, said the school has noticed an increase in student drug abuse. The school bought its own drug test-kit, but cannot afford metal detectors.
Another principal of a Johannesburg inner-city school, who also wants to remain anonymous, said: “Now and then we conduct random searches and we often find learners with screwdrivers and penknives, but, so far, no guns.
“When we asked the learners why they carry such weapons they say they use them to protect themselves in the street.”
She said her school has a security guard at the main gate who conducts body searches when necessary. She said she did not favour installing a metal detector, but given increasing violence, might consider it.
The principal suggested that the wave of violence in schools is a seasonal phenomenon. “Every year at (about) this time we see an increase in violent attacks among learners. I don’t know the cause. I always advise staff to be extra vigilant about learners’ behaviour at this time of the year.”
Professor Andy Dawes, of the University of Cape Town’s psychology department, said that for children to resort to violence “there has to be a considerable and sustained exposure to extreme violent situations” at home or in wider society.
Dawes said schools are critical sites that should have clear rules on violence and bullying and that children should be taught to resolve their differences peaceably. Thomas Blaser, education researcher at the South African Institute for Race Relations, underscored the role of weak management in schools.
Incentives and consequences for performance or non-performance were lacking, while in some schools teachers barely put in an appearance. District officials were also not giving principals adequate support. “Schools need to have people who take pride and interest in what goes on. If schools are well managed, problems will be picked up and monitored.”
Unisa academic psychologist Ilse Ferns highlighted the impact of violent popular culture on children. American studies showed that “more often than not teenagers committing acts of severe violence have intense and abnormal fascination with heavy metal rock music and lyrics that are aggressive and continuously refer to ‘dark’ topics such as death, violence, killing and anger”.
Ferns cited lyrics of the US heavy metal band Slipknot, of which Morné Harmse, the alleged Samurai sword killer, was apparently a fan. These included: “I wanna slit your throat and fuck the wound / I wanna push my face in and feel the swoon / I wanna dig inside, find a little bit of me / ‘Cuz the line gets crossed when you don’t come clean” and “I’m not supposed to be here… All I have is dead, so I’ll take you with me / Feel like I’m erased, so kill me just in case”.
She added that children and teenagers deprived of emotional security and attachments at home are more susceptible to violent influences.