In an effort to fight back the scourge of bullying and drugs in schools, the North West Department of Education has conducted an intensive training of arming the Senior School Management across the province.

The department held training with principals, deputy principals, head of Departments and school safety officers in order to reduce the scourge of bullying and drugs in schools. The training covers the drug situation in the North West schools, definition of drugs, signs and symptoms of drug usage, effects of drugs in the school environment, legal aspect of drugs testing and training, drug testing practicals and stakeholder analysis.

The National School Safety Framework training has been added since it is the umbrella under which all school safety programs fall. This tool kit covers school safety in a holistic manner and is approved by the Department of Basic Education as a guide for school safety in all South African schools.

The MEC for Education in the North West province, Mmaphefo Matsemela emphasized that the school management team should be equipped to detect bullying and drugs usage in schools.

“Since bullying is a major issue in our schools, there is a need to equip schools on how to deal with the scourge. Participants were equipped on the definition of bullying, different types of bullying, how to deal with bullying, possible anti-bullying activities, bullying action plan and possible stakeholders.

“One method of curbing violence in the schools is to deal with corporal punishment in the schools. Positive discipline and classroom management is also offered in this training as a means of replacing corporal punishment and encourages schools to take back the authority in the classroom in order to take the school a place of safety, teaching, and learning”, said MEC Matsemela.

This training in essence covered school safety in total and there is a monitoring programme which will be adhered to by schools for implementation processes.

 

For more information please contact:
Elias Malindi
Departmental Spokesperson
Cell: 0721154855/0728928399