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Safety at schools must be restored‚ says Parliament

Parliament’s Select Committee on Education and Recreation says safety in the school environment must be restored‚ saying the alarming cases of sexual assault and rape against learners require immediate action.

The committee condemned the acts of sexual assault against learners at schools in Gauteng and Limpopo.

“The schooling environment must at all times be a place of safety‚ where children are able to learn without hindrance. The alarming cases of sexual assault and rape against learners require immediate action.

 “The safety of the school environment must be reasserted to ensure that parents feel free to send their children to school and that learners are able to learn‚ because education is vital in fighting the triple scourges of poverty‚ inequality and unemployment‚” said Lungelwa Zwane‚ committee’s chairperson.

The Committee repeated its call for a societal re-commitment to fight all forms of violence in schools. It also urged the Department of Education to strengthen verification procedures with the National Register for Sex Offenders to ensure that children were protected from known offenders.

It added that adults who were found to have committed “these vile and criminal acts must be removed from the teaching profession and from the society of children”.

“As a society we have failed our children and have exposed them to risks from which they must be protected. As a society‚ we need to find solutions to these problems that besiege the education sector‚” Zwane said.

 

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