Section27 joins court bid to make schools safer

SECTION27, a public interest law centre, is adding its voice to a pending court application to ensure safe infrastructure at Gauteng schools after the death of a learner in 2017.

It is asking to be admitted as a friend of the court in a North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria application, following the incident where a learner was electrocuted and died at school.

The incident happened because circuit breakers, earth leakage and other electrical equipment had been repeatedly stolen, which made the school environment unsafe.

The matric learner died in January 2017 in a mobile classroom at the Geluksdal Secondary School in Brakpan after she touched a metal door frame during a storm and was electrocuted.

Julia Chaskalson of Section27 said while the incident occurred more than four years ago, the Gauteng Department of Education did not confirm that it had addressed the unsafe infrastructure at the school.

“Learners at the school therefore remain at risk of serious injury or death. Risks to learners’ safety and rights need to be prevented at all costs, and where dangerous infrastructure is flagged, as was the case at this school.”

Chaskalson said provincial departments should remedy the situation timeously so catastrophes never occurred again.

She said unsafe school infrastructure violated learners’ interconnected rights to basic education, an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being, children’s right to have their best interests considered as paramount in all matters concerning them, as well as equality, dignity and life.

“The relevant departments must be proactive and comply with their duties to prevent injuries and deaths due to unsafe infrastructure at all schools, and not only in high-profile cases reported on in the media.”

Section27 will highlight the pattern of neglect for learner safety, the prevalence of unsafe school infrastructure, and an absence of accountability by public officials for tragedies that have happened due to unsafe school infrastructure across the country.

It will, however, not represent the dead learner’s family.

At the school in question, electrical equipment like circuit breakers and earth leakage were vandalised and stolen at least three times because the school was not fenced or secured.

The school reported this as early as March 2016, and regularly in monthly reports to the local district and Gauteng Department of Education offices.

Adequate perimeter fencing and security measures are a statutory requirement for schools, Chaskalson said.

The minimum norms and standards of public school infrastructure state that all schools must have perimeter fencing at least 1.8m high and at least one additional security measure like burglar bars, alarms or a security guard to ensure that school property is not stolen or vandalised.

“Provincial education departments were supposed to deliver fencing and security infrastructure to all schools by November 29 last year – a deadline which Gauteng failed to meet.”