One in every three SA schools report violence among pupils once a week

More than one out of three school principals in South Africa reported violence in their schools at least once a week.

This is according to the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (Talis) which the local basic education department launched at the Nellmapius Secondary School in Pretoria on Tuesday. SA was one of 48 countries which took part in the study. It was the first time SA participated and involved 2,046 teachers and 169 school principals.

“One out of three principals (34%) report that acts of intimidation or bullying among their students occur at least weekly in their school, which is more than double the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average (14%),” the report found.

“In addition, about one out of four principals report weekly incidents relative to the use or possession of drugs and/or alcohol at school (South Africa 27%; OECD average 1%) and vandalism and theft (South Africa 21%; OECD average 3%), which are comparatively very infrequent in other countries.”

This is a developing story.