Can schools and pupils catch a break already!
With the Covid-19 pandemic all but destroying the academic year and the all-important matric exams a little more than a month away, the last thing any school needs is more disruptions.
On Monday, KwaZulu-Natal education MEC Kwazi Mshengu had to crack the whip at Folweni High School, south of Durban, where a pupil was stabbed to death by a fellow school-goer last week.
The motive? They belonged to opposing gangs.
“Pupils have categorised themselves into different groups of gangsters. The situation has become unstable at the school,” said Mshengu.
“Recently, a pupil was killed by another pupil, and some pupils are unable to attend school because they belong to different gangs and threaten each other with attacks. It is quite a volatile situation.”
He left them with this ultimatum: “Fetch your parents and change your ways or face expulsion.”
Most surprising is that the children, when asked, identified themselves with the gangs to which they belong. Quite brazen.
Most surprising is that the children, when asked, identified themselves with the gangs to which they belong.
They were sent home to summon their parents, with the same message expected to be delivered to them — if your child does not toe the line, he or she is out.
There are a lot of victims here. Not all gangsters come from unstable, disadvantaged or broken homes. Sometimes parents become the victims of their children’s actions.
Youngsters are victims of peer pressure. Maybe they find a safety net in gang activities, perhaps validation is lacking.
Then there are those who pay the highest price, such as the Grade 9 pupil at Folweni High School, who died when a gang fight broke out at the school.
The issue of violence in schools will not be solved by the singular act of expulsion. Yes, it removes the troublemaker from the institution, but the bigger problem remains in the community and in the home, where parents often battle to manage bad behaviour.
“We need to remove the rotten potatoes if they do not repent and make sure the school is stable and the environment is conducive for teaching and learning,” Mshengu said.
It’s a valid point. But the school community also offers a golden opportunity for intervention, whether in the form of counselling, career planning, mental support, life skills or mentorship.
This cannot be left to teachers alone, because most of these interventions fall outside their area of expertise. And, frankly, they have enough on their plates.
It needs government and the education department to stop being reactive and use the opportunity to take these incidents to heart. Either you help to sustain a problem by shifting it or you make available the resources to schools and communities need to stop the rot from taking root.
We have neglected too many communities for too long and with that allowed too many cracks for our children to fall through.
It is not too late to make things right.
