The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Limpopo will table a notice of motion in the next legislature sitting to debate the Limpopo Department of Education’s inability to protect learners at schools within the province.
As we commemorate International Children’s Day today under the theme ”South Africa Fit for Children: Give children a voice to be responsible citizens” it is clear that learners in Limpopo have not been provided with a safe and conducive environment for learning.
Learners in the province have been subjected to bullying, school stabbings, gangsterism in schools, sexual harassment, corporal punishment, inappropriate sanitation and poor infrastructure.
There has been a recent spate of unfortunate events that display how unsafe our schools in Limpopo are. In the last two months there has been an incident of bullying that led to a learner committing suicide, and a Limpopo teacher arrested on allegation of raping a female learner and reports of gangs in schools and learners being stabbed.
The unabated dangers in our schools led to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) having a public hearing on bullying, corporal punishment and sexual relationships between teachers and learners.
The SAHRC went on to state that all the evidence gathered during the hearings point to the Limpopo Department of Education’s failure to deal with bullying, sexual offences and corporal punishment.
The province also still remains with hundreds of schools with pit toilets that threaten the safety of our learners. Many of our learners in this province still attend schools with dilapidated infrastructure, no running water and insufficient classroom space.
The DA will raise this matter for debate at the next legislature sitting in order for MEC Polly Boshielo to lay out the plans the department has in place to address these serious issues that compromise the safety and dignity of our learners in Limpopo.
It is clear that Boshielo and the leadership in the Limpopo Department of Education are not doing enough to adequately protect learners. The DA believes that every child in school has the right to basic education, inherent dignity and an environment that is not harmful to their health or wellbeing.