Sexual assault and racism in our schools, what is next?
Sirshin Moodliar spoke to MEC for Education in KZN,
Mthandeni Dlungwana about the shocking cases of sexual assault of school pupils
and about the Pretoria High School For Girls saga. Here is what he had to say.
With over 12 reported cased since June 2016, sexual assault in our province is at an alarming high. An abnormally high number or something going on silently in the background and students are only speaking up now?
What is going on with our schooling system in KZN and in South Africa that it seems like almost every week a new story hits the papers? There are new articles of abuse, sexual assault and racism each week, don't believe me? All you need to do is type in the keyword 'school' in your news filter and see what comes up. And it is not only going on in what we perceive as ‘rural’ schools either. Just recently in the last two years, two highly esteemed Model-C schools have been battling with the press over some very serious stories. A high school principal embroiled with school funds and a drama teacher with an underground porn sharing group involving the soliciting of images from underage pupils.
Do we need to re-look at our system and find out what is actually going on? Are parents to blame? Are our school teachers or the pupils to blame? Or do we blame ourselves for voting in an inefficient government?
I am not sure what the answer is but something needs to be done, there is a lot of misbehaving people that need to be punished.
MEC for Education in KZN, Mthandeni Dlungwana had this to say, take a listen.