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The annual back-to-school period is generally a time of great excitement and fresh new beginnings for South Africa’s young people. For many, however, it can also be a period of escape (at least for a little while each weekday) from gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) taking place in their homes.
“Shockingly and sadly, the back-to-school period can also mark the start of a fearful and confusing time when our youth are exposed to abusers in and around the education system – whether these be educational professionals or classmates – resulting in many of our school-going youth becoming victims of GBVF themselves,” says Tshepo Sefotlhelo, Executive Head: Marketing & Communication of the GBVF Response Fund.
The GBVF Response Fund encourages South Africa to consider these facts:
- The findings of a recent Birth to Twenty Plus (BT20+) study – which followed more than 2,000 children in Soweto from birth to 22 years of age (also known as Mandela’s Children) – showed that 99% of these children had been exposed to some form of direct or indirect violence.
- The same study revealed that more than 65% of primary school-aged children, and 89% of adolescents were reported to have used violence.
- A study by the South African Medical Research Centre (MRC) for the Department of Health, which sampled 14,776 school-going youth, revealed that:
- 17% of students carried weapons.
- 41% of students were bullied.
- 14% belonged to gangs.
- 15% had been forced to have sex.
- 15% had been threatened or injured on school property.
- 19% were injured in fights.
- 32% felt unsafe at school.
- Although physical punishment in schools was prohibited by the 1996 South African Schools Act, it had continued with between 22% and 74% of learners reporting being hit or caned at school (according to a Centre for Justice and Crime Prevention’s 2012 National School Violence study).
- And, more recently, between April 2020 and July 2021, more than 160 cases of sexual misconduct perpetrated by male teachers were reported to the South African Council for Educators.
“As a society, we have a responsibility to create a safer and (physically, emotionally and psychologically) healthier youth. We need to set the example in building-up and educating future generations to treat (themselves and) others with kindness and respect, through healthy forms of communication.
Parents, other care-givers and educators need to be role-models to this end, and even more importantly (alongside members of our justice system), be a safe haven for our youth to speak-up, so that they can be protected from harmful situations. We need to work together to put an end to GBVF in our lifetimes,” concludes Sefotlhelo.
