School security gets major upgrade

May 16 , 2008

Zululand OBSERVER

	School security gets major upgrade THE KZN Department of Education is to fence and add more security guards at schools throughout the province, in an attempt to tighten security and prevent violence against teachers and children at schools. Reporting on violence at schools and the police sector during the Workers' Parliament, KZN Premier Sibusiso Ndebele said in the past two years, the Department has prioritised the fencing of school properties. He said 384 schools have been fenced with 950 still in need of fencing. During the 2008/09 financial year, the Department will fence a further 492 schools, while the remaining 458 will be fenced during 2009/10. Close to 3 000 security guards will be appointed in the current financial year, especially for vulnerable areas. Guidelines To assist schools and school governing bodies, the legal section of the Department has drawn up strict guidelines to ensure that search and seizure is conducted within the parameters of existing laws. Ndebele said the first step taken by the Department to address the problem of violence at schools was to ensure that all schools have active safety committees including principals, school governing members, local councillors and Amakhosi where needed. He said the province has started aligning departmental safety structures with schools as a key priority in 2007/8. 'The Office of the Departmental Head and Commissioner of the South African Police Service have worked closely to participate in all crime prevention programmes offered by SAPS and give access to managers from Head Office to school level to contribute to the formulation of crime prevention plans for their areas and on anti-drugs, anti-violence and Adopt-a-Cop campaigns,' said Ndebele. The interaction will be monitored on a quarterly basis throughout the financial year. The Premier further said that during the financial year, there will also be an alignment of different education management levels with management levels at SAPS to formalise the cooperative relationship in the effort to prevent crime. All schools have been linked with police stations' Youth Desks. The Department has nominated 28 officials to represent schools in 28 cluster 'joints', area-based SAPS structures where crime combating strategies for specific areas are discussed and solutions found.