In the quest to promote the notion of working together to fight crime, a Partnership Protocol of Agreement was signed on 11 April 2011 by the Minister of Basic Education, Ms Angie Motshekga and the Minister of Police, Mr Nathi Mthethwa. The main objective of this Agreement was to establish safe school committees across the country.
The Ministers of Basic Education and Police have now delegated their respective Deputy Ministers, Deputy Minister of Basic Education Enver Surty and Deputy Minister of Police, Maggie Sotyu, to launch the symbolic signing of this Partnership Protocol in order to sensitise parents and to inform schools, media and all other parties with a vested interest in school safety about the programmes that are being implemented. The launch is also aimed at highlighting the responsibility of each party in promoting an environment that is conducive to learning and teaching.
Implementation of this Partnership Protocol has progressed in earnest under the leadership of the National Commissioner of Police, General Phiyega and the Basic Education DG Bobby Soobrayan and to date, already 18 309 schools have been linked to police stations and 10 200 of those verified and confirmed by Basic Education and SAPS officials. We have also established safe school committees.
The need to promote safety in schools and to prevent young people from involving themselves in criminal activities cannot be overemphasised. The Department of Basic Education (DBE) and the South African Police Service (SAPS) are reinvigorating the implementation of school-based crime prevention programme.
The protocol, to be headed by the police’s Visible Policing Division and the Basic Education’s School Safety and Enrichment programmes, have acknowledged the fact that the issue of crime and violence in our schools is a shared responsibility and that the two government departments are best placed to tackle this problem, hence the need for this Protocol.
The Deputy Minister of Basic Education Enver Surty outlined the primary aims of the protocol which among others, “render school-based crime prevention service that is pro-active, to build and promote cordial and positive relationships between schools, police stations, children in general, communities and the police”.
“It further aims to promote the use of crime prevention in order to ensure school safety and to build understanding regarding the importance of prevention and the shared responsibility that everyone has for the prevention of crime,” said Surty.
The Deputy Minister of Police Ms Maggie Sotyu further emphasised that “the other reason this protocol is important, is to have clear guidelines on how and who responds in situations of crime at schools, to instill sound values for the positive development of young people into responsible citizens who revere the constitution”.
“This is to ensure that the vulnerable and special need children are living in protected environments” Deputy Minister Sotyu added.
Work on how to move the protocol from now going forward has been done and has been divided into three phases.
- phase one will see about 9 000 schools in South Africa linked with police stations,
- the establishment of safe school committees,
- the establishment of crime prevention programmes and
- the establishment of reporting systems on school-based crime and violence.
All of these will be escalated into phase two all the way to phase three, by which time all schools in the country will have been covered.
The Department of Basic Education and the South African Police Service are positive and are looking forward to this journey, as the safety of children is of utmost importance as our children are the future leaders of country. The end result is to create a Safe, Caring, and Child Friendly Schools, where quality teaching and learning can take place.
