Equal Education, a body advocating for learner rights, says issues of safety in schools have been a concern for a while.
Equal Education (EE), Deputy Head Western Cape, Chwayita Wenana says, “Safety issues are not new, and it is something Equal Education has highlighted since 2015. We did a massive social audit of 244 schools in the Western Cape and the majority of students and learners highlighted that this is a big problem.”
Wenana says their efforts have helped establish school safety committees in some schools in the province. She says such a structure looks closely at issues of safety in schools.
This happens in the backdrop of deadly incidents in recent months of pupils meeting their untimely deaths in an environment where they expect to be safe.
Many factors pose a threat to school learners safety in South Africa. These hazardous factors have in some instances ended in death for some pupils.
These fatal circumstances vary, from pupils being killed in school accidents on school trips, deaths in pit latrines, cases of children drowning in school swimming pools and on school trips.
There is also the issue of violence in schools, with some having been stabbed by fellow learners inside school premises.
What needs to be done
EE says the participation of civil society groups, the Department of Social Development and other stakeholders need to come together and figure out ways to eliminate threats that leave learners vulnerable in the school environment.
She emphasized that another area of concern is sanitation or the lack thereof in some rural schools, a problem which continues to plague the provinces of Limpopo and the Eastern Cape.
Since the death of Michael Komape, a Grade R learner from Limpopo in 2015 and the more recent death of Lumka Mkhatshwa a learner from Mbizana in the Eastern Cape, pit latrine related deaths and injuries to learners have raised alarms and government has been under pressure to eradicate these less than ideal sanitation facilities.
This pressure has driven President Cyril Ramaphosa to commit to look into plans of eradicating pit latrines at schools.
Equal Education says more needs to be done to protect learners from dying in a place where they are supposed to feel safe. “Priority should be that the Department of Social Development, community safety, different stakeholders should come together to address these issues because it’s not just one sector that can resolve it.”
EE says that it would be unfair to comment on last week’s tragic death of Parktown Boys’ High learner, Enock Mpianzi, stating issues of sensitivity around the matter.
A timeline looking at learners who died at school:
