NEZISWA TITI| 

In the last year, we have seen worrisome media reports of children bullying each other. The public has expressed grave concern with calls for schools to take action against children who violate their peers. In one particular case, we witnessed the detrimental psycho-social effects of bullying which can lead to suicide or children being unable to return to school.

The pervasive question lingering in the air, as if children are to blame, is, “Why do children abuse each other?”

Findings from my doctoral research that sought an in-depth understanding of the life stories of children who had experienced sexual trauma within a context of poly-victimisation (exposure to different forms of violence) in South African townships indicated bullying as one of the multiple forms of violence they experience.

While the study sought to understand how children made meaning of sexual trauma, surprisingly, children focused more on the detrimental effects of parenting, suggesting that parental physical and emotional abuse affected them more than sexual violence.

The findings also indicated, once again, the detrimental psychological and social effects of childhood in lone parenting and single mother households.

Children also reported that they live in perpetual fear of victimisation in the townships resulting from witnessing and experiencing different forms of violence at the same time.

READ: Grade 10 learner from Limpopo school dies after bullying video goes viral

To understand the root cause of bullying, we must address corporal punishment and the underlying drivers of violence in children’s environments. Films like Underground Railroad and 12 Years a Slave portray slavery and apartheid, with religion being used to promote and perpetuate corporal punishment.

The demonstrated brutal use of corporal punishment is therefore a historical form of punishment over subordinates. The generational repercussions of this kind of discipline is the ongoing historic trauma our society is dealing with today.

Given that humans are products of their environments and the integral role history plays in people’s realities, there is a need to acknowledge the impact of South Africa’s brutal and violent past on children’s realities. Historic trauma has a generational impact on cultural approaches to conflict resolution and informs parenting practices in the country as a whole.

The stressors that are embedded in the daily struggles of communities create frustration in households which result in mismanaged anger and violence, and this is, ultimately, both witnessed and experienced by children.

In a recent virtual session with Parliament, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma outlined the root cause of the problems in South Africa, and identified the loss of land and forced removals; fathers and men living in dormitories away from their wives and children; cheap and long hours of labour; and job reservations for white people only with the economy being monopolised by a few.

These roots causes are the consequence of Apartheid laws with visible inequalities evidenced by the racial segregation in the make-up of townships and the suburbs, which means the majority of childhoods in South Africa are disadvantaged.

Franz Fanon in his classical work, Wretched of the Earth, aptly describes the locale in which most South African children live, calling it a damned zone. The violent colonial history and apartheid laws such as the migrant labour system and the construction of townships have had detrimental effects on family systems, and the presence of fathers in their children’s lives.

The works of Nhlanhla Mkhize, a professor of psychology and Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, demonstrates how this difference is attributable to the absence of collective child-rearing as a consequence of Western individualistic norms of parenting.

His views on culture, modernisation and fatherhood are supported by findings from the Understanding Fatherhood in South Africa report by Heartlines which outlines cultural (i.e. ilobolo and intlawulo), environmental (i.e. historical and migrancy), notions of masculinity, socio-economic and systemic factors (governmental and religious) as some of the drivers of absent fatherhood.

In the paper, Reflections on Parenting Practices that Impact Child-rearing in a Low-income Community, Naiema Taliep, Ghouwa Ismail and I demonstrate how parenting is influenced by the way societies are organised. Ineffective parenting practices have been associated with multiple negative social and health outcomes among young people, with children demonstrating low emotional intelligence and aggressive behaviours which both constitute bullying.

Social disorganisation, and family structure comprised of women-headed, single-parent families with poor parental monitoring and formal and informal social networks, influence a child’s outcomes.

Nonzuzo Mbokazi’s doctoral research explained how low-income, employed mothers navigate care strategies and childcare for their young children in KwaZulu-Natal while navigating work and mothering responsibilities in the absence of support from the father’s family.

This is demonstrated by the fact that single mothers lack parenting support which is an outcome of patriarchal norms which have rendered women with less economic power. Women’s lack of financial autonomy, in conjunction with an internalised violent response to stress, strips mothers of the ability to give nurturing care in the form of supportive, consistent, and involved parenting.

During the children’s hearings on the Children’s Amendment Bill (to adjust the Children’s Act) in Parliament on May 21, 2021, a Western Cape Government child monitor from the Office of the Children’s Commissioner stated that “children are the outcome of parental performance.”

READ: Sexual assaults and violence at South Africa’s schools

This means that when corporal punishment is used as a form of discipline, children learn to use force, violence and abusive speech as a means to be heard or seen, which are all forms of bullying.

While media reports are based on older children’s experiences of bullying (usually at school), bullying behaviours are evidenced quite early in children’s life courses, as is the case with toddlers whose emotions are not properly managed and do not possess the language to express their feelings as this has arguably not been modelled to them.

The question to be asked then is: “How would toddlers learn to manage their emotions and use positive vocabulary to express their feelings if this is not modelled by parents?”

Child outcomes are the responsibility of both parents. While, in the South African context, single motherhood and lone parenting are highly prevalent, all parents need support to unlearn the ineffective and abusive parenting practices currently being employed and to model healthy disagreement to children.

Women, due to patriarchal privilege for men, carry most of the parenting responsibility, and as such, children experience mothers to be more aggressive in parenting. To this effect, another child monitor in her submission to Parliament reflected on the emotional abuse of children by their mothers, describing them as rude and vulgar towards their children. The children, in turn, called for legal repercussions against mothers who are violent towards their children.

As with the South African Schools Act of 1996, which prohibits the use of corporal punishment on learners, corporal punishment by women against children in the home is seemingly only enforced in the most severe cases. It should, however, be noted that male-headed households also contain violent parenting practices with men violating both women and children.

READ: DBE launches nationwide anti-bullying drive

In a webinar titled, Promoting an understanding of the intersections between violence against women and children organised by the Children’s Institute, UCT on 13 October 2020, researcher at the University of Johannesburg Lisa Vetten, unpacked the history underpinning men’s entitlement to uphold their sense of power through their perceived right to punish women and children.

While all children are affected by corporal punishment and bullying, black children experience multiple intersecting oppressions namely race, gender and class – in addition to age – leaving them at the bottom of the social ladder.

As a result, children across all races, social classes and genders are exposed to men’s and women’s violence against them.

When alone, children then violate and bully each other as an outlet for all the anger they have built up inside. This is to say, children experience and inflict violence on each other across all settings like at home, in school and within the community. They are therefore merely modelling society when bullying and harassing each other.

It is time we rethink how the country can begin reshaping how to express discomforts, how to listen to different perspectives and embrace change and agency.

In his seminal book, I Write What I Like, Steve Biko called it a “miracle” for someone to make it to adulthood in a township. Therefore, knowing the history and design of townships and its residual legacies, the law must be redressed to correct the miserable worlds of South Africa’s children through the Children’s Amendment Bill.

Apartheid laws created this misery that South Africa’s children and their caregivers find themselves in, therefore modern-day policies should make provision for fathers to have access to their children.

Parliament is currently conducting hearings on the Children’s Amendment Bill. To give children a better environment; the economic stressors and hard living conditions in which mothers must parent their children has to be addressed.

Focusing on the role that structural factors play in parenting can ensure that we address the “causes of the causes” concerning parental stressors which are transferred to children. The Children’s Amendment Bill must be amended to make provision for fathers to have equal parental responsibilities and rights as mothers and strengthen parental support for children.

Programmes are needed to help caregivers and parents learn alternative disciplining mechanisms to corporal punishment, which will, in turn, support parents with choosing better ways to discipline and engage with their children.

Considering our history, it must be acknowledged that South Africa is a traumatised country as we see in the hostility of its people and the behaviours of children.

A model that is a contradiction to the violent and aggressive persuasive parenting style and demand for authority is gravely needed to take care of bullying in its early stages.

Neziswa Titi is a researcher at the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Children’s Institute.

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Universities have had to adopt a hybrid approach to teaching and learning since the coronavirus outbreak.

University faculties were requested move to online teaching platforms something that was a relatively new experience to both students and lecturers.

Director at the Department of Education Innovation at UP Professor Gerrit Stols said during the first week of fully online teaching and learning in 2020, 21 791 UP students attended virtual online classes on a daily basis.

Stols said this figure compared relatively well with university’s earlier statistics, which indicate that for the same period in 2019, on average, 23 319 students accessed the University’s campuses on a daily basis.

Stols said UP adopted a hybrid approach to teaching and learning in 2015 already.

He said this earlier move eased the switch to remote teaching significantly in 2020 when the country was under lockdown level five.

“Of course, it must be remembered that we have a fairly mature learning management system – our online platform called clickUP – that we have been using for several years, with which both lecturers and students are familiar,” he said.

“This is also why during the orientation programme for first-year students, UP ensures that all students attain a reasonable level of digital literacy largely by means of the first-year module, Academic Information Management,” said Stols.

Adding that even though the transition was relatively easy, teaching and being taught solely online was a new experience for all.

The University of Pretoria’s student population is about 53 000 students so the full and complete transition from some online usage to total online usage required complex logistical planning and processes.

READ: Boosting connectivity in African universities: a lofty ideal, but doable

Norman said this is why UP’s Department of Education Innovation developed a series of intensive courses to enhance the digital literacy and fluency of academics who felt that they needed to upskill, while the Department of Information Technology Services developed a platform, UP Connect, that provided students with free internet access and gratis data when the platform was slow to connect.

But there were challenges. Vice Principal for Academic at UP Professor Duncan Norman said there were about 200 students who could not access online learning platform “clickUP” due to living in areas with no internet reception or access to electricity.

“Loan laptops were provided to those who required them and. There was also a team of dedicated Education Innovation staff who developed a strategy to ensure that these students received at least hard copies of their study material as well as telephonic tutoring,” said Norman.

Norman added that the Education Innovation department also developed a series of intensive course material to enhance the digital literacy and fluency of academics who felt that they needed to upskill, while the Department of Information Technology Services developed a platform, UP Connect, that provided students with free internet access and data when the platform was slow to connect.

More than a year later, a total of 87% of students indicated that they were fairly/mostly/fully able to manage studying online, Norman said.

Norman said the most encouraging matter about this process is that 85.47% of students reported participating in online tutoring sessions in order to better understand their course content.

“This showed that the vast majority of staff and students managed to move with confidence into the new dispensation of remote teaching,” he said.

The post Student success in a time of crisis appeared first on Inside Education.

NALEDI SHOTA|

Teachers and parents want the Department of Basic Education (DBE)  to use the month of June to ensure that primary schools and special education needs schools have all the resources required to allow for the full-time return of learners back in class. 

On 26 July all primary school learners and all learners in special education needs schools are expected to return back to class full-time, as opposed to the rotation system that has been in place since last year. This was gazetted by DBE Minister Angie Motshekga last month. 

Speaking to Inside Education on Monday, General Secretary for the National Association of School Governing Bodies (NASGB) Matakanye Matakanye said the move for all primary school learners to return to school was, in part, initiated by parents because they saw their children are losing out on a lot of teaching time. 

“We saw that in future they will be referred to as the lost generation. When they go to school once a week and skip the next week, when they return, they have already forgotten what they did last week,” said Matakanye. Adding that because it is not clear when the pandemic will end, children cannot be kept at home forever. 

READ: The Northern Cape sees sharp increases in Covid-19 infections in schools

In the gazette, Motshekga said the head of department must provide all reasonable support to enable the safe return of learners to the traditional timetable. 

Matakanye said the NASGB called on the department of basic education to put all measures in place that will continue to save the children and teachers from Covid-19. 

“We thought that they would have put mobile classes by now to add on the classes that are already there … What we are also thinking is that  they could put shields around the desks , like those from the chemists, a shield that will protect this child against this child. 

“They must not lose any step from now. From now onwards all steps to ensure that our children are protected must be put in place,” he said. 

The gazette had suggested that learners can also be taught outside, where practicable, but even in this case all health and safety measures on Covid-19 must be followed. 

The DBE also said schools need to use all the available space to prevent overcrowding in a classroom. 

READ: “We are at risk. They do not care about us” – Free State Teacher

Before the opening of schools last year in June, following the hard lockdown, the five unions represented in the Education Labour Relations Council including the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa, the National Teachers’ Union, the South African Teachers’ Union and the Professional Educators Union released a statement with non-negotiables before schools could be opened.

These included the need for proper infrastructure which includes toilets and classrooms, the provision of sanitizers, masks and soap, personnel available for screening and the reduction of class sizes. 

On Monday Sadtu General Secretary Mugwena Maluleke told Inside Education that the non-negotiables would remain until the pandemic is over. 

“Returning all primary school and special needs education learners to school obviously depended on those things,” he said. 

Already the DBE has flagged some of the issues raised by the teacher unions as what is “likely to compromise” the compliance of schools with health protocols. 

In parliament last week, the department said there were 14 issues that may make schools not ready and these include:  adequate water, sanitation, hygiene packages, screeners and the provision of Covid-19 essentials.

Maluleke said if the non-negotiables were not in place then schools could not open. 

“Teachers must not be overburdened when the state is not providing the necessary resources. Teachers are already at school but the issue is how do you support them to ensure that there is  still social distance, enough sanitizers for everyone and screeners and so forth. So June must be used to assess whether the schools are going to be ready,” he said. 

The DBE told the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education last week that Director-General Mathanzima Mweli will start weekly one-on-one engagements with provinces to see their readiness and also that on a weekly basis , provinces will be expected to report progress they are making to comply with health protocols to minimise the spread of the virus. 

Teachers who spoke to Inside Education said they were worried about having learners back full-time because as it is the health protocols are not being adhered to at school. 

A primary school teacher in KwaZulu-Natal, who asked to remain anonymous because is not permitted to speak to the media, said at her school they only have sanitizer and none of the other protocols are being followed. 

Another teacher from the Eastern Cape said the school only provides sanitizer for learners and teachers have to bring their own. The teacher said last year classes used to be cleaned throughout the day after two periods, for example, but that now was not the case. And also that there were no screeners at the school. 

However, the teachers said they were happy to have the children back at school because they also worried that the rotation system was not working in the learners’ favour. 

READ: Union calls for schools in South Africa to close as Covid-19 third wave hits

Maluleke said the rotation system has exacerbated the inequality in the education system. He said children who attend schools with resources have long gone back to school full-time. 

“We are having a generation catastrophe here in our country. Where the working-class children, in particular poor, have been taught four times a month whereas they are going to have to compete at matric level with somebody who in grade five was taught every day. 

“Inequality is a problem. It is now the time for the government to provide resources to ensure that there is additional personnel to ensure that they provide mobile classes as a way of mitigating this issue of perpetuating inequality that is going on.

“June must be used for that purpose so that by the time the 26 of July comes those particular things are in place and therefore we are able to see an African child receiving education,” said Maluleke.

READ: DBE Portfolio Committee supports return to class full-time for primary and special education learners

The post ‘Schools cannot open if all health protocols are not in place’ say teachers and parents appeared first on Inside Education.

The 2021 Olympic Games are going ahead, and the University of Johannesburg (UJ) has a team of 13 – including students and alumni – selected for the South African team that will jet off to Tokyo, Japan, in July.

The University received the news last month when Team South Africa released its selected list of athletes and technical professionals who will represent the country in various sporting codes.

UJ Sport Senior Director Nomsa Mahlangu said the selected students, who will raise the UJ and South African flags high, include Jason van Rooyen, Cheswill Johnson, Kristen Paton and Toni Marks.

Mahlangu said the students will compete in athletics, hockey, long jump, and shotput.

The team members from the university include one staff member and seven alumni.

Mahlangu said it gives the institution immense pleasure to see their UJ student-athletes and staff as well as alumni become included in the selected South African squad that will travel to participate in the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games.

“At UJ, we pride ourselves in producing talent that contributes to the growth of the South African sports community,” said Mahlangu.

There have been concerns that the Olympic Games may not go ahead, because of fears over the rising Covid-19 infections in the Tokyo.

However, the Olympics Committee said the games would continue while the International Olympic Committee Vice-President John Coates said they had all the plans and measures in place to protect the safety and security of athletes and the people of Japan, even if the city was under a state emergency.

“The advice we have got from the World Health Organisation and all of the scientific advice, is that all the measures we have outlined in the playbook, all those measures are satisfactory to ensure a safe and secure Games in terms of health, and that’s whether there is a state of emergency or not,” said Coates.

He added that Japan has long insisted that there was no question the Games, which should have taken place last summer, would be held and will be safe.

The post ‘Siyaya eJapan, Tokyo here we come,’ say UJ sportsmen, women in SA squad appeared first on Inside Education.

NYAKALLO TEFU| 

Nine schools in the Northern Cape are expected to reopen their doors on Monday after shutting down due to Covid-19 cases.

The Northern Cape Education Department has seen a major increase to see a rise in Covid-19 for a fourth consecutive week.

The Department last week recorded over 300 new Coronavirus cases which include the infection of learners, teachers, and staff.

“11 schools closed in the Northern Cape due to Covid-19 infections. Of these schools, nine are scheduled to reopen on Monday, 7 June 2021,” said department spokesperson Geoffrey Van Der Merwe.

READ: The Northern Cape sees sharp increases in Covid-19 infections in schools

This as the number of Covid-19 cases in the country continues to increase.

The Department of Health recorded 5074 new cases in the past 24-hours.

The Northern Cape province alone recorded 348 positive Covid-19 cases in the last week.

“These include 52 educators, 276 learners and 20 support staff at schools,” said Van Der Merwe.

Van Der Merwe said parents must ensure that they limit the movement and social interaction of their children in and around communities.

“This is evidence that our schools are mirrors of the rising infection rate in our communities. Parents must ensure that they limit the movement and social interaction of their children in and around their communities,” said Van Der Merwe.

Inside Education reported that teachers over the age of 40 are expected to be vaccinated. The Department of Health said more than 500 000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines have been secured for the education sector.

READ: Teachers over 40 to be vaccinated from Wednesday

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Teacher unions have confirmed that educators, cleaners and other support staff at public schools in South Africa will be vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus starting Wednesday this week.

Unions say at least 500,000 Johnson & Johnson vaccines have been secured for the education sector.

Inside Education saw a letter by the Head of Health in KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Sandile Tshabalala, addressed to the Head of Education Enock Nzama asking that he makes departmental coordinators available for planning meetings last week.

READ: Teachers set to be vaccinated in the next week

In the letter written on Thursday titled: Vaccination of educators, Tshabalala said the national department of education has confirmed that the J&J vaccines would be made available in the next week and that “most of which should be used for educators”

Media reports state that the doses are still awaiting approval from the food and drug administration.

Following consultations between the Department of Basic Education and various stakeholders, Naptosa Executive Director Basil Manuel said they anticipated that teachers aged 40 and above will start to receive their jabs from Wednesday.

“The efforts to secure a vaccine for education workers, not just teachers, have been successful,” Manuel.

Manuel added the Department of Health will confirm vaccination schedules and allocate sites according to each school district

“We are busy currently with the logistics around rolling that out to all the schools including governing body paid teachers, starting with those over the age of 40 and starting with public schools.”

READ: Teacher unions push to have teachers vaccinated in June

The post Teachers over 40 to be vaccinated from Wednesday appeared first on Inside Education.

THE parents of an 8-year-old boy who killed himself after being bullied repeatedly at an Ohio school have reached a tentative $3 million settlement with his school district.

The agreement announced Friday will go to the school board for Cincinnati Public Schools on Monday for approval in the Gabriel Taye case that dates to 2017.

The schools also agreed to actions to prevent a repeat of such bullying with such steps as training and supervising all staff on anti-bullying reforms and to working to identify repeat offenders, victims and locations. There will be two years of oversight of the district’s anti-bullying plan.

A memorial to Gabriel will also be placed at Carson School, the elementary school he attended.

 “In honor of Gabe, his family is using this settlement to protect current and future CPS students,” said the family’s lawyer, Al Gerhardstein. “We will make sure these reforms take root and end bullying throughout the CPS system.”

The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that attorney Aaron Herzig, a partner at the Taft law firm who represented the school district in the case, said a resolution was in everyone’s best interest.

“The defendants strongly believe that neither CPS, its employees, nor the school nurse were responsible for the tragic death of Gabriel Taye,” Herzig said.

“CPS embraces the goal of eliminating bullying within schools, as well as continuing to refine and improve reporting, management, and training processes related to incidents of bullying.”

The wrongful death lawsuit cited repeated examples of Gabriel and others being bullied at his elementary school. His parents contended that school officials knew about the bullying but were “deliberately indifferent,” allowing a “treacherous school environment.”

NBCNEWS

The post School District Agrees To Pay $3M In Bullied Child’s Suicide appeared first on Inside Education.

NALEDI SHOTA|

Teachers are set to be vaccinated within the next few weeks.

Inside Education has seen a letter by the Head of Health in KwaZulu-Natal, Dr Sandile Tshabalala, addressed to the Head of Education Enock Nzama asking that he makes departmental coordinators available for planning meetings today. 

Inside Education has confirmed the authenticity of the letter from two independent sources. 

In the letter written on Thursday titled: Vaccination of educators, Tshabalala said the national department of education has confirmed that the J&J vaccines would be made available in the next week and that “ most of which should be used for educators”

“The target group is basic education (all staff members of primary and secondary schools). It is expected that the dedicated vaccination sites for educators will be ready by Wednesday, 9th June 2021, and the vaccination period will be for two week,”  reads the letter.

Inside Education also understands that teacher unions are meeting with the Department of Basic Education today and the agenda is teacher vaccination. 

Inside Education reported on Tuesday that teacher unions had written to the national departments of health and education asking that teachers be prioritised for vaccination this month. 

READ: Teacher unions push to have teachers vaccinated in June

The teacher union leaders that spoke to Inside Education said ideally they wanted their members to be vaccinated before 26 July when all primary school learners and learners in special education needs schools are expected back in class daily. 

Basil Manuel, Naptosa Executive Director said, at the time, teachers must also be regarded as frontline workers because they come  into contact with large groups of people compared to the police, for example. 

While General Secretary of Sadtu, Mugwena Maluleke, also told Inside Education on Tuesday that a delay in vaccinating teachers may lead to education of learners being disrupted. 

The post Teachers set to be vaccinated in the next week appeared first on Inside Education.

NALEDI SHOTA|

Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Blade Nzimande said that students funded by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) will not lose their funding if they change their course or move to another higher education institution, as long as they are still eligible for funding. 

Nzimande was responding to a parliamentary question, this week, by DA MP Tarabella Marchesi who asked, amongst other things,  whether the scheme stops funding students if they change universities.

In a press statement on Wednesday, addressing the same issue, Nzimande said that changing a course does not affect funding. 

“No, Nsfas does not stop funding because students change institutions.  Nsfas  funding stops when the student fails to meet the academic eligibility criteria and the N+ rule,” said Nzimande. 

The N rule is the minimum qualification completion time also known as regulation time specified by the institution for a programme of study funded by NSFAS. 

“ N+1 applies to first-time entering students first registered after December 2017, whilst N+2 applies to students who first registered before January 2018.

“If a student has transferred from any other public university, regardless of whether they were funded at that university, the number of years already registered for the qualification must be counted as part of the minimum qualification completion time,”  he said.

Students who qualify for NSFAS are those who are recipients of the SASSA grant, and whose combined household income is not more than R350 000 per year. And for students who are disable the combined household income must not exceed R600 000 per year for them to qualify for funding by the scheme. 

Recently, the NSFAS board told the portfolio committee on higher education that for this year the scheme had assessed 323 445 Technical and Vocational Education and Training college and 940 226 university students to be eligible for funding. 

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