Abstract
M.Ed. (Educational Leadership and Management)
South African education system faces lots of challenges around school safety and security which disturb the smooth running of proper teaching and learning. Creating and maintaining safe and secure school learning environment requires support from all interested stakeholders. Every school tries to develop better and effective strategies to curb safety and security challenges which hamper educational development.
Kennedy (2006:36) says education administrators have many tools available to them as they strive to establish a safer climate for learning, but no one strategy or piece of equipment is a magic solution that keeps potential trouble beyond the campus boundaries. Most educational institutions recognize that the presence of security personnel is vital to keeping its students and staff safe and its ground protected.
Comprehensive schools enjoy better security personnel than ordinary and poor rural schools which actually depend on mere community member who keeps the gate open or closed. The installations of surveillance cameras with the use of metal detectors maximize school safety procedures. Majority of our schools do not have even natural access control of streets, sideways, building entrances and landscaping to clearly indicate public routes and discourage access to private areas. Better and the so called “State Art Schools” enjoy government privileges than other schools by falling under their watchful care and support.
Safe schools must be a priority and never an option for school managers. Learners must learn in a safe environment without intimidation, harassment, violence, abuse and bullying. Parental involvement and support for teaching and learning programmes must be encouraged at all times. School managers, SMT members, staff in general must be consistent in the application of regulations and policies within the school. Safety policies, emergency plans, and code of conduct for learners must be enshrined and be exercised for the safety of everyone at school.
A code of conduct for learners and educators serves as an important stepping-stone towards fostering a culture of teaching and learning, mutual respect, accountability, tolerance, co-operation and personal development within schools and the surrounding environments. These conduct code may not reduce the incidence of violence and injury, but together with other environmental, educative and structural interventions, they create a context in which behaviour expectations are clearly communicated, consistently enforced, and fairly applied (Stevens, Wyngaard & Van Niekerk, 2001:150).
Create conducive atmosphere where everybody owns it with pride. All stakeholders and community leaders must promote safe and secure schools. Teaching and learning cannot take place in a disorganized environment; neither school principals alone can do it without partnership with parents. Community lifestyle affect school environment the same way as the
school lifestyle affect community. Troublemakers and offenders must be clearly identified and close monitoring must be in place. Partnership and communication networks in well established schools in violence and crime detection are necessary, for the improvement of school safety and security.
De Waal (2011:175) says the weakness at South African schools is that the level of learner discipline that is seen to be instilled is unacceptably low.