Pretoria – Pupils from Geluksdal Secondary School in Brakpan have expressed frustration at the lack of assistance from teachers in resolving bullying and violence at their school.
This comes after a Grade 10 schoolboy was stabbed to death in an after-school fight in Brakpan on Thursday.
“After he was stabbed, we asked a teacher to take him to hospital but she refused and said she might lose her job, so we had to watch him die. It’s painful, really painful,” said one of the learners.
The same learner told Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane and members from his department that she was a victim of bullying and the only way it stopped was when her father came to school to resolve the issue.
“We can see you are here today to make sure that everything is okay, but when will you come again and resolve the issues; when another learner dies?” she asked.
Another learner told Chiloane and his officials that when they tried to speak to teachers, teachers tell them that their job is to teach and not entertain other things.
“We are surrounded by danger as learners and when we come to report to teachers… we are not heard,” he said.
Speaking to eNCA, Chiloane said the violence at the school reflected the state of the community in terms of high levels of gangsterism, crime and drug abuse.
“What we can do at best is to secure our learners, but greater work must be done by those in the community, the parents and the community leaders, they need to be role models to these learners, because they act from what they see,” he added.
