EVATON (South Africa): When high school principal Velaphi Mthembu started to get death threats and found himself living in fear of violent skirmishes, he organised a fierce counterattack to protect his students and staff.
Under a zero tolerance policy for criminal behaviour, pupils at E.D. Mashabane Secondary School in the poor black township of Evaton near Johannesburg were recruited to expose troublemaking peers.
Undercover police officers were invited to hide in toilet stalls and nab students who had skipped class to puff on marijuana joints, and to arrest pupils who brandished weapons like steel desk legs, broomsticks and knives. Mthembu even ferried young offenders to the police station in the trunk of his car.
“School enrolment has dropped to 600 from 900 students over the last year. Most of those (dropouts) weren't learners,” said Mthembu, holding up like a trophy a cloth bag of confiscated marijuana stored in his office filing cabinet.
“They were selling dagga (marijuana) or here to cause trouble. When they saw I was in business with the police, they left school. It's still a dangerous place but there is more order.”
The alarming level of classroom violence in South Africa mirrors a wider problem in a country with some of the world's highest rates of violent crime. Many blame the violence on inadequate policing, a wide chasm between rich and poor and the traumatic legacy of apartheid.
Teachers warn that schoolyard crime is contributing to the decline in education standards, also blamed on staff shortages, an AIDS epidemic that has struck down many teachers, overcrowded classrooms and a lack of textbooks.
The problem rose to the top of the political agenda in recent weeks after a spate of fatal school stabbings where teenage pupils were both the perpetrators and victims. In response, South African Education Minister Naledi Pandor reminded headmasters of their search-and-seize powers for weapons and illegal drugs and said she was considering tough new measures including random drug testing of pupils.
Pandor's department is in the final stage of drafting “priority” legislation to tighten security, which could propose installing metal detectors, X-Ray machines, and security cameras in schools, a ministry spokesperson said. Pandor has previously warned that the poor quality of public education will threaten future growth if not corrected.
While separate education based on race has been eliminated in democratic South Africa, the impact of apartheid-era policies still lingers, and the government has been accused of neglecting public schools, especially in poor townships.—Reuters
