‘School rage’ boils over onto all of us

Given the violent and criminal nature of South Africa as a whole, it probably doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone that “school rage” has reached epidemic proportions in our educational system.

Pupils are attacking each other with fists, knives and occasionally guns, resulting not only in hospitalisations but, in some cases, in deaths.

Teachers, too, are not safe in their classrooms, becoming frequent targets for those they are supposed to be teaching.

In one frightening incident this week, a school principal was stabbed in the hand when she tried to stop a brawl between pupils from rival schools.

These incidents indicate that something needs to be done to stop this raging, violent behaviour in our schools.

Experts we spoke to said there were multiple factors contributing to our schools becoming war zones.

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Gang culture from the streets of townships doesn’t stop at the school gate. Kids sometimes see – and experience – violence at home and then re-enact that when the bell rings. Drugs also play a role.

One of the major reasons cited by a number of experts is the ongoing decay of traditional family values and family life, especially where discipline is concerned.

And while parents need to bear some responsibility, many mothers and fathers are too busy just trying to survive and put food on the table to worry about much else.

So, what is to be done? Advocacy groups and psychologists should be given a chance and enough time to train pupils about ways of handling issues, instead of resorting to violence.

It’s about time the department of education, parents and law enforcement agencies up their game to make sure that proper leaders are groomed, instead of gang leaders.

The bottom line: this is not someone else’s problem, it is all of ours… and we’re all going to have to work to solve it.

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