Friederike Bubenzer and Ric Amansure from the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation joined Benito Vergotine in conversation to talk about violence in schools and what can be done about it.

Listen to the conversation here: Violence at schools, what can be done?

Over the last couple of months, violence in schools has shown a sharp increase, racism and racially motivated attacks amongst learners both in high and primary schools. These coupled with the spate of gender based violence  is deeply concerning and if left unchecked will have a hugely negative impact on the future of our country. For example, what are the boys in our schools and at home being taught about women. Over the past year, ​the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation has been called upon by schools to intervene in a number of these issues and have conducted workshops and training for teachers, learners and parents on these issues including inclusivity in our schools. Some of the outcomes of these include:

•             Establishing a common understanding of the impact that racism has on learners and staff at the school;

•             Develop a common understanding of what racism is and is not, with a few pointers to the body of knowledge on the history of subject;

•             Begin to build empathy with the perspectives of different participants and the mistakes that may come when dealing with changes taking place in society;

•             Offer ways in which progressive engagement with the challenges of racism and gender bias may be worked into the structural, systemic and socio-cultural dimensions of life in the school community;

•             Begin to equip participants with an appreciation for the use of dialogue and building understanding in their interaction with others within and beyond the school;

•             Better understanding across different identity groups in the school on the realities or lived experiences of racism and gender based violence.

The idea is to equip the school to the point where there is ongoing and sustained engagement through the establishment of a committee /forum that is open to learner representatives from all grades, teachers and the SGB and managed by a key figure at the school. The committee would address issues of transformation, anti-racism and countering gender based violence on an ongoing basis and come up with ideas on what could be done to improve the culture in this regard at the school.

We believe, however, that with the increase in incidences in our schools there needs to be a more pro-active approach to this issue. To that end, we have been engaging with the ​Western Cape Education Department who, though hamstrung funding, have welcomed the idea (It’s a bigger problem than what is being reported in the media). However, a number of corporates that we have written to for funding assistance, have not even responded. And yet these learners may one day be working for one of them.