It is my last period for the day and I am in a history class of 59 learners, a sunny day and it is extremely hot in the classroom, I can even feel my upper body under a white shirt, pink tie and a black blazer sweating, the fact that the class is overcrowded makes the situation worse so I open the classroom door for fresh air purposes. Some learners were even falling asleep as it is always the case after lunch especially after eating samp from the school feeding scheme. Two minutes after opening the door, there is a huge disturbance because of the learners outside who have been chased or probably bunked their class, as I rush to close the door, I am approached by a young lady from outside, her school skirt is two, three times above the knee, it has been reduced to one of those skirts which don’t allow one to bend or pick up something from the ground, rocked one of the contemporary hairstyles where they cut and remove hair on the sides, broad nose, tiny lips with sleepy eyes, probably high on something.

“sir, sir” she shouts, I give her my attention, “sir mara wena O’sharpo, O’sharpo joh”, I do not know what to say and I respond with a kind smile and shaking my head for disapproval of her behavior, the learners in class bust with laughter, as I  pull the door to close it she says to me “Sir Bona” as I look, of course in my mind I am thinking maybe she wants to apologize or say something serious, as I lift-up my head as a sign of paying attention to her she uses her right hand to slowly lift-up her school skirt to show me her thighs then says “wena kea go nyaka” meaning I want you, this time around the learners in class die from laughter so I quickly close the door in a confused state of mind and wonder, what is happening with this girl, I have never received such disrespect or teasing from a school girl.

The honest truth is that the violence and ill-discipline in our public schools is discouraging and heartbreaking, but the silence and the snail pace action-reaction if there is any from the broader society and “their” government towards the ill-discipline and violence is very loud and alarming. There are many factors contributing towards the failure of “our” public schools, the first factor is that those in the department of basic Education seem to have ran out of ideas and are not in touch with our public institutions on the ground level, the second and third of many contributing factors are lack of resources and overcrowded schools, but my focus will be on violence and ill-discipline in “our” Township public schools in the country as contributing factors to the failure of basic education.

The focus on “township public schools” is based on the fact that I did my primary and high school years in township public schools. I also got an opportunity to do my teaching practicals in three different public schools in the township. I have observed similar if not the same behavior and personalities among the learners, one would swear that they are all cut from the same cloth. The past 20 weeks I was doing my final year teaching practicals, teaching History at Mamelodi, which is one of the townships in Pretoria. The township public schools in our country are a breeding ground for violence and ill-discipline, and as things stand, violence and ill-discipline has become a culture in “our” schools and it has been normalized not only by the learners but also by teachers and the broader society, as a result “our” public schools will keep on churning out majority of hopeless young people who won’t make any positive contributions in our society, young people who will finish school and become unruly community members, criminals  and drug-lords etc.

Throughout the time I have spent at the two schools in Mamelodi which are Mamelodi high and J. Kekana secondary school, and through the observations I made I noticed that the violent behavior and ill-discipline is not something new and it is something that won’t end anytime soon if the two issues are not given first hand attention. The township is a place of destruction, a place where almost everything does not make any sense, an abnormal society with high unemployment, drug addiction, madness and depression. The set-up of a township is similar to a concentration camp, nothing good is expected to come out of the township, everything which finds its self-existing in the township is supposed to self-destruct if lucky it shall live with limitations.

With this being said, the Township is a place of terror and violence where abnormal situations are normalized as it lacks discipline and it is violent in nature, hence I am of the view that the culture of ill-discipline and violence in “our” schools is also perpetuated by the mere existence of townships or rather by the fact that our public are situated at the heart of townships. Is it possible to change a school which is part and parcel of the broader township society while the township remains up-side down and ill-disciplined? The behavior of learners in “our” schools is nothing new or surprising as it is a true reflection of the broader society, violence, drugs , overcrowding, depression ,disrespect and unwillingness to learn, and of course the school is part of the broader society so whatever we see in the school yard is what is happening outside the school yard.

This is why I always held a view that the behavior of some of our learners is not a true reflection of the kind of home they come from, because the reality is that most of these learners from the townships are raised and groomed by the very same violent streets, as a result of the capitalist system in our country where parents leave for work at 4:30 while their kids are still sleeping and only come back later when the kids are sleeping or too tired cause of work to even have a proper parent-child conversation.

The majority of the parents are already out of the picture, the less said about them making time for checking their kids’ school books the better. However, one of the many reasons I say they out of the picture is because they cannot even fetch their kids’ school report at the end of the term because they are always at work if not resting so they can regain the energy to wake up the next morning and go serve the capitalist economy. With the parent out of the picture, the parent, the government and the broader society then looks at the Teacher with the view that the teacher should look after the learner by using what we call loco parentis, what they fail to see is that whether we come into terms with it or not, as things stand currently in our school environment there exist two different worlds in the school environment, one world is of the Learners and the other is of the teachers.

The two view the broader society with different eyes, the barrier or the void that divides the two is one of the contributing factors which leaves space for violence and disrespect. In most cases the teacher approaches the learner with positive energy with the hope of making a difference in these learners lives but there are those who view them not as learners but as creatures, then in the world of learners, teachers are usually viewed as annoying and irritating beings who want to impose their rules on everyone and want everything to be done their way, as a result learners rebel and show signs if not actions of undermining the teacher.

The relationship between the two then becomes that of a violent phenomenon, this violent relationship then undermines Loco parentis and makes it impossible to a certain extent. As things stand, currently in this unkind relationship between the teacher and learner, the teacher is the one who is usually at the receiving end, teachers being killed and being physically handled by learners is now a normal thing in our country under “their” government and because nothing is being done teachers have taught themselves to thread carefully, do not question a learner for walking into class reeking of beer or weed. You do not question learners for smoking weed and cigarettes in the school yard, when the learner insults you, you apologize and you also apologize for them not writing the activity you gave them and lastly “when you walk into the classroom and they keep on making noise, say what you have to say and when your period is over you walk out”, if you want to reprimand them you should do it in an extra-careful manner or the government will fire you. The learner will physically handle you if you don’t tread carefully, if you are lucky the learners will make a joke out of you and you must not say anything, just be a clown, because if you say something you stand the risk of being fired or being physically handled by the learner.

The key question to these issues has always been “What Is To Be Done?” because the bigger problem here is that this culture of violence and ill-discipline in our schools leads to the classroom not being conducive for teaching and learning and it also contributes to self-destruction, I have seen learners who come to school every day but spend the entire day outside, bunking classes and smoking weed, I have seen learners who come to class every day without carrying any book, the only thing they do is to talk and play with their phones while they wait for the bell to ring so they can move to the next class.

Who will save these Black souls who have waged a war against their own future while enjoying every minute of it? The other problem here is that this kind of behavior will in the near future if not soon enough haunt the black community because the very same learners who are being a problem in our schools will be the very same people who will be murdering people, increasing the unemployment rate, smoking drugs, stealing and raping in their communities. Many public schools have normalized ill-discipline to a point where by learners from different township schools even compete about which school is more ill-discipline than the other. As a result they misbehave with liberty and with confidence.

EUSA one of the newly formed radical teachers union suggested the militarization of Schools, is militarization the correct route to take? How will it achieve the goal of creating a conducive learning and teaching Environment? Won’t the learners then learn in fear like we are teaching in fear currently? I personally believe that militarization should be our last option after we have exhausted all the possible solutions such as changing the current SACE and Basic Education policies and a full intervention from the community members and parents because the school does not belong to teacher but the broader community.

How are we going to save the young ones from themselves? Because they are already at a disadvantaged position socially, because of being black and issues like lack of resources and overcrowded classes, and instead of them fighting against such, they add more luggage into their burden of being black. If things continue as they are, soon we won’t have schools where teenagers learn and unlearn how to function in society and make it a better place, but will have places where learners go to smoke weed and all the wrong things. The saying “the school is dead” will become reality. “WHAT IS TO BE DONE? Something must be done, despite everything they are kids, they still have dreams and aspirations and we have a country to build.

Marcus Garvey (1986) contends that we should “Never keep the constant company of anybody who doesn’t know as much as you or [is] as educated as you, and from whom you cannot learn something or reciprocate your learning, especially, if that person is illiterate or ignorant because constant association with such a person will unconsciously cause you to drift into the peculiar culture or ignorance of that person. Always try to associate with people from whom you can learn something”.

But this remains a calamity to many EFFSC branches, the anti-intellectual discourse and its large fan base. This discourse finds expression in many branches and remain the leading discourse. Not only is this discourse anti-progressive, but perpetuate a culture of lazy thinking within the branch to a lesser extend and contribute to a larger extent as a thread to the revolution. With the emergence of empty sloganeering this discourse became fashionable and appealing. Fighters continue to find relevance and expression from cheerleading and hauling through this discourse.

On the issue of lazy thinking, Fighters continue to misconstrue and misinterpret EFFSC guiding documents to suit their pseudo revolutionarism, which remains the only revolutionary model in the said branch by the way. Fighters actively participate in defying the Non-negotiable Founding Principles of the EFFSC. Principle 7 states that all members of the EFFSC should “Contribute to intellectual and ideological discourse in a manner that seeks to promote the struggle for economic freedom”. A paradox for many branches this remains. From these branches, quasi-intellectuals emerge – their role is to be at the forefront at all times and are usually leading the cheerleading brigade. They prima facie appear to be knowledgeable through the employment of heavy political jargon, and a visible social media presence, where they further practice copy and pasting from Google when contributing to social media streets. It is as though they hold the intellectual centre of the branch, or one would reasonably think.

Marcus Garvey further contends that “One should never stop reading”. Guess what, those who choose to read are reduced to “readists” and other derogatory politics followed by sponsored and self-centred views on why reading is not an element of the revolution. At the centre of this, one would find these cadres rather investing their energy and time in watching YouTube videos or entertaining social media views, for they themselves are too lazy to take in and process information by means of reading. These cadres end up quoting leadership verbatim on these videos or social media posts and move on to mimicking leadership. They remain the loudest.

Principle 6 goes on by stating that all members of the EFFSC should “Promote academic and research excellence and progress”. Funny enough, one would find Fighters in their 5^th year of a 3-year degree because these fighters monopolise power in the branch by actively failing or registering minimal modules. These Fighters continues to occupy benches in the BSCT for years without any tangible change or progress. They do not contribute in any way and continue to recycle ideas and initiatives. They perpetually fail to adapt with time and to new conditions. Now that’s a protraction of laziness to the extent that it finds expression in one’s academics. That’s contrary to Principle 6 that speaks about two things; academic excellence and academic progress, respectively.

Thomas Sankara cautioned us when he said that “A military without political training is a potential criminal”. Well, he would be surprised to learn that some militant forces defy objectives that seek to sharpen their political training, because to them it is anti-revolutionary. This phenomenon is widespread among branches.

What remains for us to go back to our respective EFFSC branches and realign the intellectual discourse so as to represent the EFFSC outlook as found in the EFFSC Constitution and other guiding documents. Maybe, just maybe, Principle 6 and 7 will find significance and will be afforded the necessary attention it deserves.