At the School Safety Imbizo in Kliptown, south of Johannesburg, held yesterday 2 November, 2024, the Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane identified 245 schools as high-risk for learners due to poor safety and security.
However, the same issue was raised a year ago, so why has nothing changed?
High-risk schools, some extreme cases
Parents, school governing bodies, civil rights groups, and others attended the School Safety Imbizo to discuss issues around safety at schools.
The Gauteng Education MEC addressed the attendees at the Imbizo. He said that an alarming 245 schools in the province are high-risk when it comes to safety and security.
‘Out of that, we identified 75 that are extreme. Westbury, Eldos, Reiger Park, Soshanguve, Hammanskraal and some are in Tembisa,’ said Chiloane.
Chiloane said the same a year ago
In October 2023, Chiloane met with stakeholders and outlined his plans to rein in over the 75 high-risk schools. He met with the school principals as well as School Governing Bodies of these schools to find solutions to some of the issues affecting them.
The meeting took place under the banner ‘Operation Kgutla Molao’. The operation is a safety strategy that Chiloane launched in response to reports of safety concerns at Gauteng schools.
At the time, Chiloane stated that the Department is prioritising the 75 schools that are the higher-risk schools out of 245 schools in the province that are high-risk. So, unless the 2024 list is a different list than the 2023 list, it seems that not much has changed in terms of the concerning situation.
Initiatives outlined last year by Chiloane
Interventions that the Department stipulated last year to address the problem included the deployment of four armed security guards per school, training Schools Safety Committees, and also bringing in metal detectors to identify dangerous weapons, and more.
The plan proposed by the MEC also included the activation of e-panic buttons for 3 000 staff members.
‘The Department remains steadfast in its dedication to ensuring that schools in the province become beacons of safety, learning, and growth for all students,’ Chiloane said a year ago.
Have these been implemented or put on hold? What are the Department’s plans to address the issue?
What is your opinion on the matter?
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