FEATURE
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“When those people stand up, they are not going to be as peaceful as we hope when they try and voice their grievances”
In a separate incident earlier this year, the St David’s Marist Inanda School in Sandton took disciplinary action against senior pupils who forced grade eights to ‘mock rape’ bus chairs. Meanwhile, several weeks later, the Gauteng Education Department expelled five pupils for bullying at Lethabong High School in Soshanguve, Pretoria. The decision was taken after David Hlongwane, so distraught after being bullied, committed suicide. Another teenager appeared in the Wentworth Magistrate’s Court in Durban after he allegedly stabbed a fellow 15-year-old pupil to death at the Fairvale Secondary School in KwaZulu-Natal. Problem? When did we become so indifferent to issues highlighted in the evening news that multiple suicides by school children became OK with us as a people? It’s almost the same as how we continually exercise our “arm-chair activism” viewpoint and converse about how Uncle Rob isn’t treating our Zimbabwean friends well up there. We talk about it, we sing and make posters but really now? How did that help us out when we were in the Struggle? A string of these events made its way to international platforms as social media has packed quite an influential punch over the years. The evolution of chain-mail messages to open letters and shared Facebook statuses shed light on why such cases of suicidal, vengeful young boys seemed to dominate headlines overnight. It took a few to stand up, and by a show of hands literally say, “This is not cool”. The String Movement managed to disarm bullying by raising awareness, building a global community through education and training for students, parents and teachers within local and global communities. Simply tying a piece of string around the wrist to say no to bullying has been the easiest mode of activism. The act of wearing a cotton string, shoestring or coloured string has made a significant impact in countries like Australia, America and the continent of Europe that it has become a globally recognized movement to cease bullying in the 21st Century. Watching this trend 46 IMBO/ ISSUE 16 2013
catching up with South African schools (ex-Model C schools first) is a clear indication of how we truly are a global community. While this may be a temporary solution for what seems to be a deep-seated problem, it’s better than suffering alone silently. How can teenage suicide be OK with our ministers of Health, Correctional Services and Education and not ring alarm bells in national speeches? We are exposed to so much disheartening news all over social media and all we are willing to do is to click “Share” without even reading the text. Imagine us, filling up the streets, strings on our Umkhonto we Sizwe inspired fists fighting for that 14 year old sitting on a broken down toilet cubicle in the townships – now wouldn’t that be something! THE REVOLVING DOOR SYNDROME Education isn’t free. Even at primary level, the parent has to pay off a certain amount to get their child into the school. Now after twelve years of a curriculum approved by a government that is led by a man who left school in grade four, you’d think we’d all be focused on realising variety. How is it possible for a country that has such a low Maths and Physical Science pass rate to constantly, without fail, have engineering and accounting courses filled to capacity before year-end? We all acknowledge that our schooling system fails to produce well-prepared university entrants. We all know of numbers of failing students that have been excluded from the university, that have repeatedly failed that one first year module. It’s sad to think that some years later they’d join the job hunt and sit at home with the rest of us. The fact that this has become an acceptable social norm in communities is a problem. Unemployment alone is a problem but add to the list masses of ill-equipped graduates as education - being the key out of povertybecomes a little less reassuring to the young ones.