The Human Rights Commission recently released a shocking report on school violence.

Following the commission's report has been another one by the Centre of Justice and Crime Prevention, which reveals that violence in schools is endemic.

Crime and violence in schools are threatening the wellbeing of young people in South Africa.

These scourges are contaminating the school environment and jeopardising the educational process.

Despite national efforts to restore a culture of learning and teaching, many incidents of crime and even murder are reported on school grounds.

Childline estimates that one girl in three and one boy in five under the age of 16 has been sexually abused in school.

But crime and violence in schools is not a isolated phenomenon. They reflect the crime situation in the country.

Comment by motivational speaker Deepak Chopra, that crime in society is a projection of its collective consciousness, supports this view.

Hence the importance of the moral regeneration campaign, the effect of which is limited by a lack of vision and coordination at community level.

The solution lies in the hands of such stakeholders as school governing bodies, the police, parents, local businesspeople, youth organisations and the government.

Such mobilisation is long overdue.