Ten years after the introduction of the new democratic political dispensation in
1994, violence in schools are as rife as before. There has been no significant
decrease in school violence during this period. Violence has only increased and
become part of people's everyday lives. School violence remains a serious
problem for both learners and educators. Various factors contribute to school
violence and it has become necessary to determine to what extent school
violence influences the learners of South Africa.
Education is available for everyone to utilize. For learners to achieve optimally,
safe environments need to be created. In order to eradicate the problem of
school violence, it is important to know what the concept school violence entails,
which factors contribute to school violence and to what extent school violence
has influenced the schools up to date. It is also important to keep track of
international trends which promote health in schools globally.
Health is undoubtedly linked to educational achievement. The World Health
Organization has initiated a project to promote health and healthy lifestyles
universally. To counteract the persisting violence in schools, the possibility of
creating health promoting schools in South Africa deserves attention.
In order to unravel the phenomenon of violence in schools, a qualitative method
of research was used, with data being collected by means of focus-group
interviews, through intentional sampling. The transcriptions were subjected to
descriptive analysis. The findings of the research are presented with an overview
of school violence in the West Rand region. Factors contributing to school
violence in this region have been identified as: drug and alcohol abuse,
gangsterism, gambling, intolerance and the influence of educators. Physical and
Psychological violence are the two main categories of violence identified in this
region with various sub-categories which include fighting, harassment, sexual
abuse, intimidation and victimization which enhance the violence and violent
behaviour in this region.
A nation's wealth lies within the youth of a country. They assure the future and
our children are the most important natural resources we possess, therefore we
need to respond to the challenges -violent behaviour and crime in our schools. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/479 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Meyer, Alan Gert |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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