The “I Am a School Fan” campaign was officially launched at Lekazi Primary School on Wednesday. The aim is to put an end to bullying and violence in schools; it is set to have a lasting impact to help children and teachers feel safe.

This campaign is led by South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) Old Mutual Retail Mass Market The plan is to roll it out in schools countrywide.

Xolani Fakude, head of secretariat of Sadtu, said, “We have launched the I Am a School Fan project to mobilise all stakeholders within schools and commu-nities to play a vital role in helping to eliminate violence in schools. Reports show that bullying remains one of the biggest problems that children face and with other stakeholders, we aim to put an end to it. We need to take responsibility of what happens in schools as that is where our children spend most of their time on a daily basis.”

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Thembisa Mapukuta, general manager of alternative distribution for Old Mutual Retail Mass Market, said, “As a responsible business, Old Mutual is stepping forward to ensure that the education sector’s systemic challenges are addressed, both holisti-cally and collectively. We collaborated with Sadtu on this campaign with the objective to raise awareness about violence in schools.

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Over the long-term, we want to ensure that through this partnership we are able to formulate tangible solutions that will eradicate violence in schools and address the issues that could threaten the future of children in South Africa. This will require participation from all stakeholders, government, educators, parents and the community at large.”