NATHANIEL LEE | School suicide scourge has spiritual dimension which needs prayers

The escalating rate of South African pupils who commit suicide is serious cause for concern, which calls for equally serious intervention to halt this scourge.

In a recent incident, an 11-year-old Grade 5 pupil from Anzac Primary School in Brakpan took her own life after being reprimanded by her parents for allegedly stealing R300.

The Gauteng province has emerged as the epicenter of the suicide crisis as 40 suicides have been reported since the beginning of the year.

In another incident, a 17-year-old pupil also ended her life after being told she was ugly and teased about the shape of her head. According to Gauteng education MEC, Matome Chiloane, pupils are confronted with a variety of problems that could make them feel hopeless and overwhelmed, including anxiety, depression, bullying, violence and online abuse. At least he had the sense not to blame apartheid.

In response the provincial education department has established a partnership with the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag), in an effort to curb such incidents and safeguard the pupils’ well-being. As a mental health support group, Sadag holds talks on mental health in schools across Gauteng.

The group has identified four main factors contributing to the rise in pupil suicide cases, which include family problems, including abuse, substance abuse, gender-based violence or family separations, trauma, such as sexual assault, abuse or witnessing traumatic events, bullying and depression.

The departmental intervention measures also extend to deploying 500 “learner support agents” to provide an early warning mechanism and give peer counselling for 1,200 schools. An additional 120 social workers have been allocated to assist with risk assessment of pupils. To presumably tighten the screws further, 500 Ke Moja coaches have been deployed to schools to assist with substance abuse awareness programmes.

According to Sadag operations director, Cassey Chambers, most affected schools were in disadvantaged schools presupposing adverse conditions were the driving force behind the suicides.

“They worry about how they are going to feed themselves or siblings, how they are going to be able to get to school. They deal with so much trauma where there has been so many losses, hectic deaths and illnesses –  this all has a huge impact on pupils”, he said.

At face value, it would seem schools indeed have a lot of challenges to deal with such as violence, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy and general ill-discipline. It is worth noting that whenever there are traumatic episodes at schools, the department always ensures that there is psychosocial support to provide counselling and trauma support to affected pupils and staff. Well and good but is it enough? It is important to diagnose correctly what ails our schools in order to prescribe the correct remedy.

When one looks at the problems bedevilling our schools, most of them have their genesis from the disintegration of the family unit, which results in broken homes. Our fatherless society also contributes to what happens in our schools as our children cannot acquire a solid foundation from a home with two parents.

Furthermore, there is a need to acknowledge the scourge as not only having social and psychological roots but also a spiritual dimension. Speaking during a parents meeting at Tsakane Secondary School, after two pupils and a staff member committed suicide by consuming poison, the CEO of the Pholoshong Regional Hospital in Tsakane, Dr Nthabiseng Makgana, expressed concern and alluded to a spiritual aspect as the cause. She said people should go back to the basics and practise the principles of respect, love and ubuntu.

Going back to basics should entail the restoration of family values where children are brought up to respect their elders. Parents should exercise their roles and not abdicate it to schools.

As the Book of Proverbs 22:6 teaches, “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn away from it.”

The moral decline in our schools can also be attributed to the absence of prayer with the advent of democracy which rendered SA a secular state. This should not be misconstrued as nostalgia for the apartheid Christian state. Here I am reminded of a Facebook post where a concerned student enquired of God why He had allowed so much violence in schools to which He replied that it was because He was not allowed there.

Prayer has positive psychological, physical and emotional influences. Focusing on your emotions by praying can help relieve stress, calm fears and reduce anxiety. For children, prayer can have a positive and constructive effect on their outlook and those around them. Reminding children to always stay connected to God will not hurt them but can only edify them. What happened to practices such as morning devotions assembly and to structures such as the Students Christian Movement? Is it not time to reintroduce these?

To counter the demon of pupil suicide and other scourges, we need to bring back prayer to our public schools.