Violence at school must end

SCHOOLS are a microcosm of society. In any country, the culture of teaching and learning that takes place at a school is greatly influenced by the society from which the school population comes.

South Africa is no exception to this. And to its disadvantage, is the fact that ours is a country riddled with social problems, where crime, violence and drug abuse sit high on the pedestals of social evils.

Of late, the local news and social media has been saturated with stories of violence at schools. More specifically, learner-on-teacher violence. These stories then take centre stage and have become talking points at various levels of social interaction as they go viral within minutes of happening.

Even more concerning is the fact that only the incidents that were captured or reported are public knowledge. When interviewed by various media platforms about this phenomenon, the executive director of the National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa), Basil Manuel, stated that the organisation believed there was far more violence against teachers than was reported. One of the reasons cited for the lack of reports was teachers’ fear of victimisation.

In most instances violent attacks of teachers at schools result in a huge outcry from the public, where many people and organisations condemn these actions.

However, the painful truth, especially in today’s schooling environment, is that long after these stories subside, or are usurped by another more disturbing incident, the schools and educators are left to deal with disciplinary procedures and the necessary investigations henceforth.

I have personally taken many calls from Naptosa members requesting our office to intervene or provide assistance where there have been violent incidents at school.

A lot of the times, calls are made to our offices because educators themselves are not adequately equipped to deal with the behaviour and sometimes brazen outbursts of learners.

And a delay in their action could easily backfire on them, leading to claims of corporal punishment being thrown at them.

Human rights is of paramount importance to all citizens. The South African Schools Act, the Abolition of Corporal Punishment Act and the Children’s’ Act, among others, protect learners to such an extent that teachers are left feeling almost defenceless when enquiries are made into what led to the violent outburst or attack in the classroom.

Section 12(1) of the constitution states that: everyone has the right to freedom and security, including the rights to be free from all forms of violence, not to be tortured, treated or punished in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way. As controversial as it may sound, there are so many examples of what could actually constitute corporal punishment that teachers are sometimes found guilty of unwittingly inflicting corporal punishment on learners.

When it comes to violence, or any type of abuse at school, action is taken decisively, either by the school management or by the powers that be. But we have to ask the question: are we treating the symptom or the cause? Many educators will admit that they lack the necessary professional development to enable them to act accordingly in terms of learner discipline.

Furthermore, the employer has a mammoth task at hand in terms of training and workshopping educators on classroom discipline. Within the past eight months Naptosa held two workshops on the Child Justice Act, an act many educators had never heard of, and received an overwhelming response.

Where a learner assaults anyone at school, be it teacher or learner, that learner can face the law in terms of the Child Justice Act. It is a misconception that nothing can be done if the perpetrator is below the legal age of 18.

For years now, educators and parents alike have been hinting at the disintegration of the schooling ethos. Many people have consigned this to the evolution of schooling and society as a whole.

This may be partly true. However, the recent spate of violence at schools hints at a far greater problem at hand. Effectively, we seem to be caught in what looks like the culmination of a myriad societal and cultural ills. One that is playing out in the very place where we expect good values and respect to reign supreme.

So how then do we begin to dissect this cancer that has beleaguered one of the oldest institutions known to humanity?

Social Media

For starters we need to take into cognisance the generation gap between educators and learners. Unlike previous decades where educators and adults in general had the upper hand in terms of being technologically superior to children, we now live in an era where there is a steep learning curve for late adopters to technology. More specifically, the use of smartphones and social media.

The current cohort of learners is what researchers refer to as “digital natives” (those who are born into technology). Children understand very well the reach of social media and the ease with which it can be used to their advantage. And unlike a learner who, 10 years ago, may have had a disagreement with a teacher and left it at that, today’s learner (should he/she have the tenacity to do so) would provoke the teacher knowing full well that they may get an aggressive response out of anger and have the support of a class full of learners instinctively pull out a cellphone to record the incident.

The parenting dynamic has also changed, with the current generation of parents usually both working, allowing for fewer hours of family time.

Children then spend more time interacting with each other on devices and social media, to the point where they live in a social bubble and perceive the world differently from adults. This, coupled with exposure to an almost limitless amount of multimedia, desensitises them to violence.

Teachers, on the other hand, are overburdened and stressed on the best of days. With ever increasing class sizes and curriculum constraints, coupled with minimal assistance from the employer, it is not difficult to push someone over the edge. This writer is in no way condoning violent or aggressive retaliation as a response, but merely pointing out the ease with which situations at school and in classrooms could turn volatile. Very often, a teacher may not even know that he/ she had inflicted corporal punishment.

A Gauteng department of education circular spells out corporal punishment as any deliberate act against a child that inflicts pain or physical discomfort to punish or contain him/her.

Let us not forget that every child, given the opportunity, would like their moment in the spotlight. Photographing or capturing a video at school of any type of violent act means immediate attention is drawn to their social media platforms and increases their online popularity. This, therefore, becomes their “claim to fame”, as Naptosa executive director Basil Manuel said.

Lessening violent acts at schools is something that can only be achieved if we fix the social ills of our country and encourage respect and positive and harmonious social interaction among all citizens.

All stakeholders need to take ownership of these problems and act now.

The KZN office of Naptosa has added to its roster a number of professional development workshops on subjects such as the Child Justice Act and currently one on cyber bullying. If something is not done soon, then the old saying will ring true for generations to come: “School is not what it used to be.”