Cape Town - School safety at some Western Cape schools is in the spotlight, following the recently released report “iSafety Ngoku, Seeking Sanctuary in Western Cape Schools”, by Equal Education (EE).
The report findings, released on Friday, were based on school inspections in August and September 2019 at 40 Cape Town schools, across the four education districts.
The schools are in the City Bowl, Elsies River, Gugulethu, Khayelitsha, Kraaifontein, Langa, Mfuleni, Mitchells Plain, Nyanga, Philippi and Strand.
Some of the findings include: 40 schools had some form of fencing but some did not meet the 1.8 metre requirement or covered the entire perimeter; 29 schools had security guards but at all but two, the security guard was a community member or parent without formal training; 87% of schools had alarm systems but more than half were only installed at the admin block; and 30 out of 40 schools had safety plans and 12 reported not using them.
EE researcher Stacey Jacobs said the major threats identified at the schools were drug use (85%), theft of personal property (63%), alcohol use (53%), gang violence (53%), burglary (53%), and significant vandalism (50%).
“It is worth noting that these results might not accurately reflect the extent of the safety crisis because victims typically do not report all instances of violence,” Jacobs said.
Thirty-seven out of 39 schools reported having a safety committee, but only 25 of the schools with safety committees said their safety committees were functional.
“Upon further probing, we found that a majority of these committees were not functional because they did not meet regularly, nor did they develop and implement safety strategies tailored to their schools,” she said.
Safety pillars to address current and potential threats in schools include establishing school safety committees, appointing safety officers, and creating safety plans as suggested in the WCED manual “Managing Safety and Security within WCED Institutions”, providing adequate psychosocial support services (counsellors and social workers), and the implementation and understanding of existing school safety policies such as the National School Safety Framework and the Western Cape’s Safe Schools Programme (SSP).
EE said the Department of Basic Education (DBE) must order a revised round of National School Violence Study; for the WCED to co-ordinate with the DBE for full compliance with security measures as stated in the School Infrastructure Law; WCED must support schools in setting up functional school safety committees; and assist schools in increasing access to psychosocial support services;
WCED must improve schools’ internal capacity for safety interventions as stated in the NSSF and its SSP.
According to the WCED, for the month of January alone, 62 incidents were reported relating to learner behaviour, ranging from minor disciplinary matters like absenteeism, to abuse and assault.
Last year, the department recorded 2 138 incidents from minor to serious.
Education MEC David Maynier said the department has allocated R76.1 million on securing schools and promoting learner safety at schools.
“We’re committed to constructing secure fencing at 30 schools every year for five years. We will in fact reach that target of 150 schools over five years, a full year ahead of schedule, completing fencing at these final 30 schools in this financial year!”
School Resource Officers (law enforcement officers stationed at schools) will increase to 46 this year, with a further 18 added next year.