SCHOOL SAFETY IS EVERYONE’S RESPONSIBILITY

GOAL four of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is not ambiguous at all. It calls for governments and communities to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education” so that there are learning opportunities for everyone.

Nelson Mandela put it eloquently when he said “No child in Africa or around the world should be denied education”.

Children’s right to access education is one common cause that communities around the world have been aggressively fighting for in the last decade. It has been commendable to see what UN Children’s Fund, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) and Plan International, among others, have done over the years to realise the dreams of many.

But once in a while, we ought to reflect on the gains we have made in fast-tracking education for many of our children. We need to establish whether our motives have been driven by the eagerness to push pupils through the system to tally figures for the world to see, or if we have given them a quality education coupled with skills that will assist them in becoming better adults.

We need to wake up to the fact that education is not just about dishing out textbooks and cramming numeracy and literacy. It is broader than that. It speaks to the learning environment for pupils.

We need to ask ourselves: is it safe for our students and teachers?

It has been said that schools in Africa are not safe. Last year, it was reported that the Nigerian Defence Ministry had taken security measures by building ditches around schools to keep them safe in light of the abductions of schoolgirls by Boko Haram militants.

Abroad, in an attempt to fight mass shootings at schools, US President Donald Trump called for teachers to be trained and armed, a view many suggested does nothing to fix the failed gun-control systems in that country.

In South Africa we have seen pupil-on-pupil attacks, pupils attacking teachers and vice versa, and educators violating the rights of children, physically and sexually.

Noteworthy is a comment made by Anne-marie Hilsdon, a gender specialist at the Institute for Security Studies, when she said there was no way African countries could reach the fourth SDG of providing safe and supportive work environments as well as end violence against all children until school-related violence was eliminated.

But how do we fix it? Where do we look to?

Irina Bokova, director-general at Unesco, says we can’t simply “blame just the teacher or the school for systemic educational problems”.

She maintains that “education is a shared responsibility between us all – governments, schools, teachers, parents and private actors”.

Therein lies the answer. Everyone needs to fix it. Parents, communities and the government need to provide security and treat schools as safe spaces like they would do for their homes and workplaces.

We cannot abdicate responsibility and use schools as a dumping ground for our social and socioeconomic challenges only to partially deal with them back at home and continue the same process the next day.

That is not creating a sustainable future for our future leaders.