Cape Town - Despite more than one million pupils across the province, the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) only provides 64 social workers and 64 psychologists.
They have also appointed 160 care and support assistants (CSAs) at their “high-risk” schools and are in the process of appointing social auxiliary workers to capacitate the districts more.
However, WCED spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said: “One can’t simply divide the numbers to get a ratio from one million pupils, as some schools have their own social workers and therefore do not require our assistance.
“It also doesn’t take into account the other support, like the CSAs and auxiliary workers, and support from Department of Social Development (DSD) social workers, who assist us, particularly with abuse cases, and NGOs,” she said.
In the first phase of CSAs, they have appointed one per district but will be increasing this pool as budget permits.
Director of Molo Songololo, a non-profit organisation, Patric Solomons, said: “Ideally, we need one social worker and two pupil support officers at each school with 500 pupils, and two social workers and four pupils support officers at school with about 1000 pupils.
“We also need more educational psychologists and counsellors that specialise with pupils who have intellectual barriers, mental health challenges, and special needs. We also need behavioural counsellors to help address aggressive and disruptive behaviour of pupils and promote non-violence practices and behaviour.
“Pupils and teachers at underprivileged schools need various psycho-social support services to manage stress, anxiety and exposure to violence.
“Effective resourced psycho-social support services for pupils will reduce the school drop-out rate, school-based bullying and violence, and increase academic performance of pupils and schools. Every pupil and every school, especially those most in need, must have easy access to these services,” he said.
Clinical psychologist Samuel Makgetla said: “It is vital to have either a social worker, psychologist, or psychiatrist at every school because this will ensure that pupils, who are identified to have psychosocial challenges, are giving a much-needed intervention on time.
“It is also important to indicate that we are living within a time that is very challenging. You will find that in some instance, parents gets to be preoccupied with different stressors, and these parents could neglect the emotional well-being of their kids unintentionally.
“The first area where these symptoms will be projected is within the school setting and should a pupil receive this much-desired intervention on time, then an affected pupil can recover adequately.
“Pupils who don’t receive this intervention on time, could proceed to have other behavioural problems such as being bullies, or in some instances the affected pupils could lose focus on their learning programme and eventually they (affected pupils) could drop out of school.
“It’s important that every child should receive psycho-social support from these professionals at a given time, despite the area they live in or their family financial status,” he said.
Founder and coordinator of Parents for Equal Education SA (PEESA), Vanessa le Roux, said the mental stability at schools is in crisis.
“Many teachers have attested to this behaviour in pupils. The traumas that these pupils are dealing with are not being addressed when the social workers and psychologists visit schools.
“The Western Cape Department of Social Development and Western Cape Education Department must work together in order to create more awareness and to address this issue. It is in serious danger of getting out of control,” she said.