There’s a new conflict in many young minds.
Back to school for many has meant moving from a space where looting was condoned, with children even joining their parents in the plunder, to one where it is despised.
An educational psychologist who did not wish to be named told the Independent on Saturday that a moral discrepancy was picked up in private schools in which he worked.
“Now there’s a guilt complex.”
He pointed out that the awkwardness went both ways because there were also cases when adults in communities refused to loot, only to be ostracised and challenged with comments like, “so what makes you better than the rest of us?”
“What makes you special?”
Basil Manuel, executive director at the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa), basing his experience on a wider range of schools including those he visited this week in Phoenix, Chatsworth, Umbumbulu and Pietermaritzburg, said this placed the added pressure on teachers to be the ones who teach young minds what is wrong and what is right.
“But it must not be done in a way that makes them want to run away and hide.
“We have to understand that children, especially primary school children, have little clue. They can guess it’s not right but it’s complicated when their mothers and fathers said it was OK.
“So it’s an issue that teachers have to deal with sensitively.”
Manuel said that victims and perpetrators of looting were living in the constant shadow of fear.
“With fear comes trauma. So much is in the teacher’s hands to show the right way, to do nation building.”
Manuel said there was so much that teachers had to do and that it was underestimated what they can do.
“Teachers are undervalued.”
A source in state education said psychological services were thin on the ground.
“There are too few people able to go out there and provide the psychological support that is needed.”
Manuel said of his visit to Phoenix that rhetoric had caused much anxiety.
“It has made teachers feel unsafe and children are caught in the crossfire.
“The killings have been terrible but not all Indians shoot blacks and not all blacks loot.”
Logan Govender, an educational psychologist, said that pupils, even at the best of times, were under immense pressure in the face of curriculum demands.
“Now, additionally, they have to cope with a convoluted Covid-19- adjusted time-table, and also try to cope with the impact that the recent mayhem has caused. Certainly a heavy load for young shoulders to bear.
“While post-traumatic stress (PTS) reactions, in one form or the other, could be described as normal or expected human reactions to abnormal situations, manifestations for example such as fearfulness, inability to sleep properly, impeded concentration, tendency to panic, hyper-vigilance, over-cautiousness, fearfulness, and bed-wetting in some cases, would have major implications for the well-being and progress of pupils.”
Govender warned that if PTS remained unchecked, it could, after 4 weeks or so, “graduate” into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a psychiatric condition requiring a professional diagnosis.
He presented a summary of how some interviewed pupils from Pietermaritzburg, Empangeni and Durban expressed their feelings:
- I am in Grade 12 .The work is hard. Covid has already caused loss of so much time and stress. I don’t concentrate. I am nervous our school may be burnt down even while we are in class.
- I am angry, disappointed that people who have enough are looking for excuses to be lawless.
- I don’t want to take the school bus because someone might burn it.
- From where we stay, we could hear the gunshots and see the thick smoke. Now we don’t sleep at night. We sit and keep guard.
- Is this really over? Me and my mom are panicking it might start again any time.
- Last year and this year we lost so much school time with the virus. Now with so much fear for riots any time I think I will fail this year which is my matric year.
The provincial department of education had not responded to questions by the time of going to press.
The Independent on Saturday