The Department of Basic Education says it’s been linking schools with police stations in an effort to improve safety at schools. The Department was reacting to criticism by teacher union, Sadtu in the North West.
The union accuses the Department of failing to heed their call to implement safety measures at schools. This, after a teacher was stabbed to death by a learner at a school in the province.
There have also been several incidents of learners attacking and sometimes killing other learners in different parts of the country. Basic Education spokesperson Troy Martens defends the Department.
“It’s a bit unfair to make those types of comments. We are doing everything we can we have a number of initiatives that promote school safety and safety at schools. For example one of them is that we have a protocol with SAPS where every school is supposed to be linked up with a police station and so far we have 18 000 schools that are linked up successfully . Linked up with the police stations and what that means is that police at any stage can come to the school. To the best of our ability we want to provide safe spaces and safe environments for learners.”
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