While on an oversight visit to Eldorado Park High School on Tuesday, the Gauteng legislature’s portfolio committee on community safety and the education committee learnt that a learner had been stabbed.
It is alleged that the learner was attacked by an intruder who fled after the stabbing. The learner was stabilized and rushed to a healthcare facility.
The unannounced oversight visit was part of the committees’ Focus Intervention Study (FIS) to assess the effectiveness of school safety interventions in crime in schools.
Upon hearing the devastating news, the committees adjourned their meeting with the principal and school management team to allow them to attend to the stabbing incident.
“The incident highlights the scourge of violence and criminality that exists in some Gauteng schools, which prompted the FIS that the two committees are engaged in,” said committee chairperson Bandile Masuku.
During the visit, committee members were shown knives confiscated from the learners. They also learned about a learner who brought a gun to the school the previous day.
“Shocking incidents like these cannot be left unattended, as they are not isolated cases. They need urgent interventions by government and civil society,” said Masuku.
“We will table the committee’s findings and recommendations during a house sitting and compel the department of education to act.”
The committees will host a stakeholder engagement session that will bring various experts under one roof to come up with recommendations that will form part of a report for tabling in the legislature on August 31.
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