EDITORIAL | Pupils should be burning to learn, not learning to burn

Thirteen years ago, government launched what appeared a well-thought out campaign titled the Torch of Peace aimed at putting a stop to a reign of terror in our schools.

Lunga Ngqengelele, spokesperson for then education minister Naledi Pandor, explained that the “campaign seeks to promote safer schools” and that department officials would visit “identified troubled schools to help them implement measures to fight the violence”. The torch moved from one province to another until, it appears, everyone forgot about it. It is anyone’s guess where the torch is today. Meanwhile, the violence continues as if there never was a torch of peace!

We reported here last week that a police case was opened against a grade 10 pupil who allegedly set on fire a vehicle belonging to a deputy school principal at Northbury Secondary in Pietermaritzburg. The pupil was overcome with rage ostensibly because the deputy principal did the unthinkable — confiscated his cellphone! 

At Ndengetho High in KwaNdengezi, Durban, pupils set their school on fire after a police search and seizure operation which led to the discovery of weapons and drugs, among others, on the school premises. In anger, their classrooms went up in smoke.

The latest tragedy out of our schools took place just outside Sir Pierre van Ryneveld High in Kempton Park, where Neo Mabaso, 19, was kicked in the head in a brawl which led to his death after his hospitalisation. As a consequence, the three boys allegedly involved are now on the run. Mabaso’s grandfather Jack Mongezi Marele told TimesLIVE Premium: “There was a fight outside the school last Tuesday. My grandson had swelling on the brain and was rushed to Tembisa Hospital, where he passed away from his injuries a day later.” 

On what basis should a child burn a car when their cellphone is withheld? There could never be any justification for burning a school.

The family is traumatised. Millions of parents send their children to schools across our country every day. The hope is that they will return in one piece. Or that they don’t go on the run, like the killers of Mabaso and the torcher of the deputy principal’s car, because of their wayward conduct.

The Torch of Peace campaign was an acknowledgment that violence in schools, perpetrated by pupils or teachers, was unacceptable and had to be stopped. Sadly, for us, the theatrics of torches stood in the way of the real hard work necessary for meaningful solutions.

The rage from our children is completely unjustified. On what basis should a child burn a car when their cellphone is withheld? There could never be any justification for burning a school. But to do so simply because the police and teachers searched and confiscated drugs and weapons is to feel entitled to carry weapons and drugs. What level of madness is this? As we see it, the school must be raided weekly, if not daily (where resources permit).

Some parents, too, sometimes encourage communities to burn schools simply because they’re unhappy with government’s pace in providing services. This shows that some of the dysfunction we see in our schools are rooted in dysfunctional communities. Parents have a responsibility to teach their children basic norms in human conduct: if children don’t respect their parents, how do they suddenly develop respect for teachers at school?

Some children are well-behaved at home but become bullies at school. This requires parents and teachers to work together. Torches may come and go, but the involvement of parents in their children’s education must remain a constant presence.

Further, police ineffectiveness indirectly encourages banditry in our schools. Where pupils know that burning a deputy principal’s car or brawling could lead to death and will most probably lead to arrest and conviction, this could be a disincentive. The status quo, though, is that the odds, sadly, aren’t very much stacked against the kids.

In the end, we need a bouquet of interventions. We need parents who don’t outsource parenting to teachers; police who ensure criminals face the full wrath of the law; psychosocial services in schools to help identify problems before they escalate to torching of cars and murder; and pupils who understand what it means to be a pupil. This is not about PR stunts and torches. It is hard work.

It’s the Mabaso family burying their child this week, it could be anyone else tomorrow if we keep avoiding the slow, arduous but necessary work.