Teacher has novel take on school violence
● A Durban deputy principal believes she has the answer to SA’s school violence epidemic: treating the scourge the way doctors would a disease.
Dr Zithobile Mkhize-Ngidi, who recently graduated with a PhD in public administration: peace studies at the Durban University of Technology, focused on two schools in Umlazi township, south of the city, for her study on reducing school violence.
According to the National School Violence Study statistics contained in Mkhize-Ngidi’s research, at the 121 secondary schools surveyed, more than a fifth of pupils had experienced violence in school, 12.2% had been threatened with violence, 6.3% had been assaulted, 4.7% had been sexually assaulted or raped and 4.5% had been robbed at school.
“Despite the existence of various interventions, SA still faces this dilemma,” said Mkhize-Ngidi, deputy principal of Vikingozi Secondary School in KwaMakhutha, Durban.
Her first-hand experience of school violence also prompted her to research the epidemic.
“In 2016, while I was based at another school, I witnessed a pupil-on-pupil attack. They had a disagreement and one of them pulled out a long, sharp object and stabbed the other pupil. These incidents are not uncommon at our schools. There is a great deal of anger among our children, mainly because of the social ills they face every day,” she said.
Her study was influenced by US epidemiologist Gary Slutkin, who developed the “Cure Violence” model, premised on the idea that violence is a contagious disease.
Slutkin started a group that reached out to people in highcrime areas to serve as violence interrupters. After tip-offs from community members, they reached out to people who experienced violence, mediated ongoing conflicts and worked with would-be criminals to change their behaviour, in much the same way that doctors treat outbreaks of contagious diseases. Within a year there was a 67% decrease in shootings in one of Chicago’s most violent areas.
Mkhize-Ngidi believes the key is to teach pupils how to resolve conflicts without violence.
This week a 24-year-old teacher in Zeerust, in the North West, was killed, allegedly by a 17-yearold pupil, while in Eldorado Park in Johannesburg a 15year-old pupil allegedly pulled a gun on his teacher.