THINK SMALL TO IMPROVE OUR SCHOOLS

THE MERCURY, 16 May 2006

To improve education and stop the trend of school violence, we need to keep schools small and devolve power to the local community, writes Lionel Mtshali

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In a recent shooting incident - one of many - a Grade 12 boy from Pinetown fired a gun aboard a school bus, wounding two classmates. This time, luckily, the incident was an accident and there were no fatal casualties.

The incident, nevertheless, brought a flurry of attention to school safety.
Why does it take a school bus or a classroom shooting for us to become concerned about the quality of our education system in particular and the well-being of our children in general?

School violence is a global phenomenon. After the now legendary killings at Columbine High in Littleton, Colorado, classroom shootings have become part of the adolescent folklore worldwide. We no longer question their very occurrence, we only measure their intensity and quantify their brutality.

The truth is that school violence is a reflection of violence in society in general. When stress and anxiety build up in an individual or society, they are likely to erupt in antisocial behaviour. Many of our children are confined to lives in communities where our communal neglect allows violence to occur frequently. This violence then, naturally, spills over into our schools.

When school violence first emerged as a social phenomenon in America, education and safety experts rushed in with a suggestion to install metal detectors at every school door. These, in combination with security guards, can only provide an illusion of safety. Metal detectors and guards merely treat the symptoms. They can succeed in restricting the tools of violence but fail to address the underlying cause.

Furthermore, metal detectors have become anecdotal evidence for counter-productive policy. They make schools look like prisons and make school children feel like prospective prisoners. It follows that if children are made to feel they are being treated like criminals, they are more likely to act like criminals.

One realistic way to make our schools safer is to make them smaller. American and European researchers tend to agree that smaller schools have proportionally fewer incidents of aggressive behaviour, vandalism, theft, drug and sexual abuse and gang participation.

I believe this has to do with the power of localism. Community-based schools give their pupils the comfort of the familiar. In such surroundings, safety and security become everybody's responsibility. Pupils will receive more support and personal attention from their teachers. This is bound to result in better attendance and lower drop-out rates. Improving school climate will logically lead to better education.

Localism is also about devolving more power to local communities to make smaller schools, or at least smaller classrooms, happen. It is about making government services more accountable to local communities. Because education is a service and the state is often the only provider, localism is about forging a new relationship between the state, its services and the locals.

In a typical large high school, a pupil attends six classes a day with six different sets of classmates and is usually taught by six different teachers - if rampant teacher absenteeism does not get in the way. Pupils are often unfamiliar with their peers and surrogate teachers. This inevitably makes them feel anonymous, insignificant and unsafe.

A little focus on localism can change all of that. A small school environment is conducive to developing strong and lasting relationships. Pupils will get to know their teachers and each other. A small classroom with a lively interaction between pupils, teachers and parents is a microcosm of a well-functioning community.

I have always believed that the answers to the problems faced by our communities, including school violence, are to be found in the communities as they stand. Local communities exhibit a remarkable inner strength. Their sense of unity and belonging has the capacity to increase their ability to meet daily challenges with clarity, creativity and calm.

Education, if conceived locally, can exhibit an identical capacity to provide the systematic means for developing the innate strength in individuals, whom it can equip with a similar mastery to meet not only their daily but future challenges with success.

A local school can be and should be a source of local pride. Schools are supposed to be safe havens and places of refuge from the violent society outside. They can only be so as small schools where the feelings of safety and security are instilled and nurtured by people who know you and care for you.

Lionel Mtshali is the IFP Leader in the KZN legislature and a former KZN schools inspector.

Contact: Dr Lionel Mtshali, 083 256 4902