South Africa: beyond exclusion - preventing school violence in South Africa - Brief Article

UNESCO Courier, April, 2001 by Graeme Simpson

During the apartheid era, township schools were sites of violent political struggle. Today, they are all too often at the mercy of criminal activity. The answers lie with society as a whole, not just the school

Idealt drugs at school," "Pupil shot for cell phone," "Depression might have led to suicide of 11-year-old boy," "Students seek revenge for teacher killing." This is just a sampling of a few recent headlines in South African newspapers. Youth gangs are intruding into the schools of vulnerable communities, using them as markets for drugs, alcohol, weapons and young girls, who are being abducted and raped.

No effective strategy for preventing violence in schools can be developed unless we understand the legacy of apartheid. Under this regime, young black high school children were the barometer of systematic marginalization and powerlessness.

The education system was designed as a means of colonial control, and deliberately aimed at preparing students to be no more than "hewers of wood and drawers of water" to service the affluent white-owned industry. The school was oppressive, but it also became a site of highly politicized struggle, a vehicle through which young black people could assert their stake and role in society. Many youths established an alternative subculture in which the rites of passage and means of acquiring status were often premised on proving themselves through direct involvement in violence. It was noble to be on the wrong side of illegitimate laws. Violence was socially approved in the name of liberation: the heroes of the day were young men who carried guns and fought.

Although many of these youngsters who had grown up on the streets returned to school during the transition to democracy, the snail's pace of transformation meant that little or nothing had actually changed in the classroom. The poor or non-existent facilities, the under-qualified teachers and the virtual failure of racial integration stood as powerful symbols of ongoing marginalization. So it is no surprise that violence continues. In lieu of the political resistance movement, marginalized, frustrated youth found an alternative place of belonging and social cohesion within criminal youth gangs.

These gangs might only form a small hard core, but they are teaching us a hard lesson: we must rebuild the social fabric so decimated by our Apartheid past. Schools provide a vital point of access to young people who are both the primary perpetrators and victims of violence today. The school is also a contested terrain, precisely because of the fine line separating youth at risk inside the classroom and those whose criminality has been consolidated on the other side of the fence. It is a very fine line, drawn in the dusty sand of township life. Crime prevention strategies frequently fail to recognize how easily this line may be crossed.

Our first initiatives began as a trauma management programme in Soweto schools, helping teachers identify and assist those children who might, for instance, be victims of domestic violence. This did not happen easily: teachers are often reluctant to take on issues of school safety and violence prevention. They have to be empowered through proper training and know where to refer troubled children. From this narrow focus on trauma, we have developed a more all-encompassing strategy to prevent school violence. One of most important lessons we have learned is that students must be listened to: they know exactly where crimes are taking place within and outside the school, and often suggest practical solutions, such as putting up lighting here or cutting the grass in a nearby field.

Going beyond security concerns, we have stressed the community's role in reducing violence. We have set up safety teams involving teachers, students, parents, civic organizations and other local actors, and built better relationships with the local police. We have encouraged schools in dangerous areas to link with one another. At a broader level, we have spearheaded multimedia projects, notably severalTV drama series on human rights, racism and violence in schools, which are aired at prime time. Taking stock of this holistic approach, the government has recently tuned into these and other grassroots initiatives to tackle school crime more effectively. The idea is not to fence off the school, but to build bridges with communities and recreate a sense of belonging in society.