‘Quarter of KZN pupils are abused at school’
DURBAN: Pupils living in KwaZulu-Natal were more likely to experience violence, verbal abuse and corporal punishment at school than pupils living in seven other provinces in the country.
Data in the 2013 Statistics SA survey, released by the national Basic Education Department last week, revealed that 24 percent of KZN pupils aged from 7 to 18 had endured violence, verbal abuse and corporal punishment at school – equal only to the Eastern Cape.
In Gauteng, fewer children than in any other province (5.4 percent) shared those experiences.
The General Household Survey: Focus on Schooling report, which is published every year, details the strides made in getting children into classrooms, and the stumbling blocks to learning.
A sample of 25 000 South African households were surveyed, and the report focused on factors including children’s access to early childhood development, school fees, grade repetition and violence at schools.
Less than half of all KZN children younger than four were enrolled in early childhood development facilities – which included formal Grade 0 classrooms and so-called day mothers or day grandmothers.
This figure had risen significantly from 4.3 percent in 2002.
The number of orphaned children enrolled in schools had climbed slightly, from 2.3 percent in 2002 to 5.7 percent in 2013. This was a triumph for the department, the report said, because it was managing to keep children at school in spite of their socioeconomic status.
Despite the number of nonfee schools in South Africa, 24 percent of children aged 7 to 18 cited not having money for fees as the reason for not being at school.
Another 8 percent said that family commitments such as child-minding kept them out of the classroom, and 7 percent were unable to perform to a “satisfactory” level at school.
At KZN schools, the rate of absenteeism was lower than in Gauteng and the Western Cape, and more KZN children were fed by the National School Nutrition Programme than pupils in those two provinces.
KZN had the highest proportion of children aged 5 to 6 who walked to school for more than 30 minutes (19.7 percent).
The report acknowledged that pupil transport was one of the key challenges confronting the government.
“The ability of learners to access education is hampered by the long distances they have to travel, threats to safety and security, as well as the cost of learner transport,” it stated.
“Learners have difficulty accessing educational institutions because of the inadequacy of transport, and insufficient provision of schools in areas where they live.
This was compounded by the learners being transported in unroadworthy vehicles.
The report also acknowledged that the proportion of pupils aged 5 to 13 who walked long distances to school was a concern because of the “threats” along the route to children so young. Pupils arrived for their lessons tired and unable to concentrate.
The survey showed that 63 percent of South African households said they did not pay school fees, while just 1.4 percent paid more than R20 000 a year. Of those households that did not pay school fees, 97 percent said that it was because the children were enrolled in no-fee schools.