Safety and security challenges in public secondary schools in South Africa

Abstract

The challenge of safety and security in schools across the globe is very important to both teachers and learners as it creates an environment which promotes the physical, emotional, and social well­being of the stakeholders and has a bearing on the teaching and learning process. Schools in South Africa have been influenced by the macro-environmental variables, undesirable events, and behaviours such as drug addiction, violence, gangsterism, child abuse, bullying and the like. Public secondary schools in South Africa are witnessing high cases of incidents that disturb and threaten the safety and security in schools which is negatively impacting effective teaching and learning. To ensure safety and security in schools, it is very important to determine the security problems and challenges and find the solutions for tackling them. Therefore, this study investigated the safety and security challenges faced by selected public secondary schools within the Pinetown District in South Africa.