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Creating a Youth Empowerment Model for Peaceful Schools

Creating a Youth Empowerment Model for Peaceful Schools

With ongoing reports on the increase in school violence, Fathima Dewan, a Peace Building PhD student and lecturer in the Child and Youth Care Programme at DUT, is conducting a study aimed at empowering students to tackle the problem.

More than half of the pupils who were surveyed in Dewan’s study said they have been victims of abuse in classrooms, school playground and amongst their peers. Some of the main factors contributing towards this dilemma include corporal punishment, gambling and bullying.

A pupil, who had been a perpetrator of violence at Wiggins Secondary School, Durban, said the study made him change his bad behaviour. “I did most of my bullying and fighting with other kids in the classroom when the teacher was not there but more often in the playground during lunch breaks. Until this study, I had thought it was okay to physically attack and mock my fellow learners. We are not taught about the effects of such behaviour and how to conduct ourselves,” he said.

Although the investigation only focused on one school in Mayville, the outcomes of the programme tend to be more effective if young people take ownership of the process. The case study consisted of questionnaires which were done by 70 grade 10 pupils, 20 teachers and three focus groups (one male, one female and one mixed). The final product consisted of an action team which comprised of the Dewan and 15 grade 10 pupils.

During the planning and implementation stage, 13 sessions took place between August and October 2015. The final implementation was conducted through a role-play (“Stand Up Against Violence”). Evaluation forms were filled in by 20 grade 9 pupils and 20 grade 11 pupils on the day of the event. Through the case study, the school has decided to have an annual campaign on school violence.

In her report back on the case study, Dewan said through her investigation, she hoped to give the pupils that she had conducted the study on a voice. “Youth empowerment is about giving young people a voice. Involve them and in order to build peaceful schools and what better way than to guide them towards the right direction and allow them to take ownership of the process,” she said, adding that this was a special time for her and the pupils she worked with.

– Noxolo Memela

Pictured: Fathima Dewan and the 15 pupils known as “Future Leaders of Change”.

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