Violence (in its many forms) is a constant in the experience of many children.
It affects their outlook and responses in a multitude of ways both in childhood and in later life, all extremely damaging to our society.
In particular it has huge influence on how today's children will treat their own children.
To bring about change in our society and particularly in society's attitude to its children it is necessary to change people's mindsets so that violence is no longer an acceptable, automatic response to conflict or disagreement.
Schools are as safe as the communities in which they are situated and most South African schools are surrounded by violent communities. As a result, violence in and around schools is an almost daily occurrence
The practical responses of fencing, steel gates, policemen etc have had very limited effect as they do not reach the core of the problem violence is seen as normal in most South African communities-a message often reinforced by the behaviour of the learners own families
For the majority of South African children school is the most positive element of their difficult lives and schools need to become places of safety because there is little or no learning (either academic or social) in an atmosphere of violence.
The Quaker Peace Centre working in partnership with Western Cape Education Department (WCED) trains children from disadvantaged schools in Cape Town. Experience has shown that their teachers have enormous influence on the children's behaviour and that, without teacher support, it is almost impossible to create and sustain a shift in the children's mindsets and thus in the school as a whole. For this reason QPC starts with the teachers.
The project was initiated in 2002 when we began to train teachers in behaviour management. By 2007 it was clear that we needed to address the whole school culture including classroom management and establish an ongoing framework for a culture of non-violence to be maintained in the school.
In 2008 a curriculum advisor at the WCED central district office asked us to co-host a three day camp for learners and teachers-a first for South Africa. This involved 60 learners and 30 teachers and led to the Non-Violent Schools Campaign in which all the QPC projects are involved.
Target Groups
Grade 10 learners (ages 14-18), school principals and school teachers from high schools in the Western Cape. In addition, principals and teachers from primary Schools, curriculum advisors and managers from the Western Cape Education Department and Head of Education in WCED.
What the NVSC does
Trains volunteer teachers so that they can teach non-violence values across the curriculum. The training includes :
- Behaviour Management in the classroom.
- Peace Education-Creative Education, bullying, classroom management etc.
- Training to Facilitator level in Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP)
More about AVP bellow:
Counselling skills. Delivered by Paul Cassidy of South African Resources and Counselling (SARC)
Starting and supporting a learners' Peace Club.
Attendance at annual NVSC camp and Indaba
The training programme currently involves some 30 teachers from 18 different schools. The training takes place on Saturdays and is spread over some 14 months.
We run annual three-day school camps for peace buddies and their teachers. This has proven to be a life-changing experience for many of the peace buddies and many more are anxious to attend than can be accommodated.
The camp is followed by a two-day Indaba (a gathering) for teachers and learners to which new schools and participating schools are invited. This provides a rare opportunity for learners and teachers to engage with education officials about best practice for non - violent schools. Each year the camp has a different focus.
QPC's role in this project is to develop the training and train teachers, to support them in establishing and sustaining the peace clubs, to offer other workshops to the clubs, to organise the annual Camp, annual Indaba, a Human Rights Day picnic and an annual re-union for teachers and learners.
What the teachers do
The teachers learn to engage the learners with content meaningful to them because when they are bored or confused they become disruptive and this leads to breakdown in classroom discipline and can result in violence. To teach non-violence the teacher has to make the message engaging, exciting and repetitive. It must thus be embedded in the curriculum and repeated on a daily basis.
Teachers establish "Peace Clubs" - a key element in our approach and train the members in AVP. These clubs provide the children with a forum for participative dialogue, opportunities to discuss and debate the problems and issues of their lives, to understand their rights (as in Chapter 2 of the SA Constitution) and most importantly, opportunities to learn ways of tackling these at both individual level and as advocates for change.
Children volunteer to become Peace Club members accepting that as group members they become workers against violence - bullying in particular. Club members are called "Peace Buddies". This gives them a sense of belonging and pride in themselves as custodians of peace.
Once formed the clubs grow, taking on new members as each new intake of 14-18 year olds arrive and they are free to organise workshops from other organisations, e.g. on HIV/AIDS, career advice.
In addition to the AVP training QPC offers two other projects as a part of the "NVSC package" These are "Diversity" (understanding the power of unrecognised prejudices and stereotypes) and "Young Women in Leadership" (i.e. understanding and tackling the disadvantages of being a young woman in South Africa). This has had such impact that the young men are demanding an equivalent. An element of this series is the attention given to Advocacy and Lobbying to deal with the problems encountered in discussion. An example of this is the protest march organised by young women in Delft.
Both these projects are described in greater detail below.
NVSC Programme 2011
On the basis that the earlier children are exposed the greater the impact primary schools are being included in each year's intake from 2011.
- Train 13 teachers from 13 new high schools - plus 3 primary schools
- Set up Peace Clubs in each school
- Run 3-day non-violence camp for teachers and learners - 1 teacher and 4 learners from each school. Topic - anti-bullying
- Run 2-day non-violence indaba 150 people of which a third will be from new schools
Programme 2012
- 13 new high schools plus 3 new primary schools
- Peace clubs set up
- 3 - day camp. Topic - climate change
- 2 - day indaba 200 people of which 50 will be from new schools
Programme 2013
- 13 new high schools plus 3 new primary schools
- Peace clubs set up
- 3 - day camp. Topic - caring curriculum
- 2 - day indaba. 200 people - peer learning
This will take the totals to 69 trained teachers from 57 schools and 1710 peace buddies.
Geographically the focus of the NVSC will be on Mitchell's Plain (a mainly coloured - mixed race - township on the Cape Flats) though keeping on board schools from other areas who are already involved and, if possible, increasing the racial/social diversity of learners. It is hoped that schools close to one another will come together and form "peace cells".
NVSC Development
Launching the Non-Violent Schools Campaign with Western Cape Education Department - Metropole South Education District in 2009, has formalised our relationship with WCED and they have requested :
A structured plan of the courses QPC is running with teachers. This was presented December 2009.
Registration as a formal WCED supplier of services - so that QPC can be paid for the teacher training.
That QPC register its teacher training courses formally with the SA Council of Educators defining outcomes and assessment standards. This will allow teachers to claim credit for their professional development.
WCED Curriculum advisors (and additional teachers from Metropole South Education District) to attend the teacher training workshops.
The launch also led to a letter of support from the Western Cape Minister of Education, Mr Yousuf Gabbru. We quote:
"... The only way to truly bring about change is to start the change within oneself and then to model that to the world. You need to walk the talk and not talk the walk. My challenge to you today is that you will become that change agent, within your family, school and community: that you will help to develop and nurture a safe non-violent society that will truly become a home for all, irrespective of the person’s race, colour or political convictions.
Be the change agent that will change the course of history, become the change and influence the lives of others to become change agents for peace and non-violence."
Monitoring and Evaluation
As our long term aim is to offer our methods nationally, we are establishing formal, structured monitoring and evaluation procedures. We recognise that though the past three years and the partnership with Western Cape Education Department has shown the value of the project, for national acceptance this must be more formally and independently demonstrated.
In three years time (end of 2013) we will have worked with a total of 57 schools. With the assistance of Western Cape Education Department, base-line conditions will be established in each school, the activities over the year will be closely monitored and recorded together with behavioural data from the school itself. The data and reports will be ready for formal, annual evaluation of the project impact. This process continues for at least three years in each school.
We maintain contact with all the schools which have joined the project since 2007. To make the best use of our own accumulated data we are also (with our partners help) collecting these schools own records of behavioural change and re-analysing the data so that by the end of 2013 there will be data and evaluations on some 40 schools.
This, with the accompanying documentation (manuals, guides, plans etc) will be the basis for the wider launch.
Other Elements of the NVSC Project
NVSC has grown out of years of work in and with schools and other training organisations. Overall project activities include:
Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT)
The Behaviour Management programme at CPUT gives student teachers the tools and understanding to manage the classroom without use of corporal punishment. This has been illegal since 1996 though in frequent use by teachers. This programme has run since 2003 and has trained 402 student teachers at CPUT.
Behaviour Management module is a compulsory part of the second year students professional studies programme. The training has been very successful and is highly regarded but the number trained at CPUT is small and other training institutions have not yet included this type of module in their curriculum. QPC provides the student teachers in the Western Cape with the only opportunity to do this training.
Working Group on Positive Discipline (WGPD)
In November 2007 QPC, working within a consortium comprising University of Cape Town and NGO's RAPCAN, and Childline, began planning and lobbying the National Department of Education to present a Positive Parenting Programme in 9 ministerial schools over 18 months. The programme aims to increase awareness of parenting skills and reduce the high levels of pregnancy among teenagers. It involves learners, teachers, parents, school governing bodies as well as the local (provincial) education departments. The proposal was submitted to the department in February 2009 and the project began in 2010.
Advocacy and Lobbying
NVSC presents it work regularly at public forums such as:
A presentation on "Behaviour Management in a Non-Violent School" to the WCED Behaviour Management conference on 15th May 2010 where a lot of interest was expressed in the AVP element. It also facilitated at a Principals conference on 22nd May 2010 - "Relationship building in schools".
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Social Development - September 2006 through to December 2007 when the clause forbidding parents to beat their children (in the Child Safety bill) was withdrawn.
Submission to South African Human Resources Commission on violence in schools (September 2006).
A paper at the International Conference on Student Discipline entitled "Positive Discipline. A system that can work in South African Schools" (April 2007).
Panel member at SA Council of Churches Symposium on Child Rights - November 2007.
Article published in August 2008 in both the Cape Times and The Star supporting the establishment of Leaner Support Centres. A support centre provides a safety net for learners at risk of expulsion. Learners are sent for a temporary period, continue their academic work and are helped to change their offensive behaviour by being engaged in activities which really interest them or in which they excel.
Article published in the Cape Times in August 2007 advocating positive discipline in schools, another in February 2008 advocating a bill of responsibilities for learners and one in August 2009 calling for a co-operative multi - pronged approach by all government departments to address violence in schools.
Awards
The NVSC project leader was awarded the White Ribbon in January 2010 from the Women Demand Dignity Foundation in recognition for the work done to improve the lives of women and children in the community. There were 10 awards in South Africa and the project leader was interviewed on national radio by political analyst Justice Malala and Jane Raphaely, founder of the Foundation.
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