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School safety was the main topic of a day-long summit hosted by the provincial education department on Tuesday at Nelson Mandela University's Missionvale Campus in Gqeberha.
In his remarks, MEC, Fundile Gade, noted that issues like crime and vandalism threatening schooling could plunge the system into a crisis.
Gade, Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Gary van Niekerk, the head of the Department of Education Sharon Maasdorp, and the acting head of Community Safety, Zukile Kani, were joined by other provincial officials for the summit.
The Department noted that criminality has impacted schools in the province, especially in Nelson Mandela Bay, Sarah Bartmaan, OR Tambo, and King Sabatha Dalindyebo Municipalities.
Gade said they had prioritised schools in Nelson Mandela Bay and Sarah Baartman districts where millions had been spent on fencing schools.
"The HOD (Maasdorp) took a bold decision to review the budget allocations to respond to the immediate problem. We took a decision that schools of NMB and Sarah Bartmaan municipalities must be priotised on school safety from an infrastructure point of view."
He added that fencing to the value of between R8m and R10m per school is being put up at schools in these municipalities to ensure the safety of the learners.
Meanwhile, NMB mayor Gary van Niekerk said the summit comes off the back of a recent signing of a memorandum of cooperation with the South African Police Service which is a collaborative effort from all three spheres of government to address crime in the province.
The acting head of the department of community safety in the province Zukile Kani says his department and the police signed a memorandum of understanding to ensure more police visibility.
"Part of the strategy is ensuring that each school is allocated to a police station where there will be a dedicated police officer who will deal with that specific school."
Kani also said his department will be entering a partnership with the liquor board and will ensure that by-laws are enforced that all liquor outlets that are near schools are permanently shut down.
