School security guard shot by criminals at school
ALEXANDRA - Principals plead for decisive action aganist crime and better parental involvement in education
A security guard at Alex Secondary School was hospitalised for treatment after being shot by criminals who broke into the school and stole thousands of rands worth of tablets from the school.
The school’s principal Zoleka Lebelo confirmed this at a handover at Realogile Secondary school of computers by Standard Bank to
local secondary schools. Lebelo stressed that security needed urgent attention at Alex schools to avoid discouraging potential sponsors of education in the township.
He added that break-ins and thefts were happening frequently and urged for intensified police intervention, improved safety and security partnerships with unarmed patrollers, more involvement of school governing bodies regarding security and more parental involvement.
“Minimal parental involvement cripples the delivery of quality education and teaching,” he said.
“Very few parents attend meetings, especially when called to come discuss their children’s conduct and performance.” Lebelo said it was parents’ responsibility to ensure their children’s punctuality at school, to avoid substance abuse and teenage pregnancies.
She identified psychological services as essential to deal with children’s trauma which was derived from poor social conditions that inhibited learning and concentration. She also appealed for support with transport for pupils to and from sports and other activities at their twin school Sandown Secondary School, Sandton.
Minerva Secondary School principal Nontsikelo Tsatsi said some parents, mainly from Limpopo, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal,
enrolled their children in local schools but left them to care for themselves. “This causes ill discipline, absenteeism and exposes them to negative influences beyond the school’s control,” Tsatsi said. She said she was also concerned about fraudulent children’s school reports which were produced at known places in the township. She urged community leaders and the police to deal with this matter quickly before it got out of hand.
The Joburg East district director, Mnyamezeli Ndevu, urged for crime and thefts at schools to be tackled decisively. This, he said was the only way to ensure teachers and pupils achieved their goals in changing people’s lives and improving the status of the nation.
