Safety & Privilege: School Safety Dichotomy in Gauteng Former Model-C Schools and Township Schools

Introduction: As an enduring legacy of South African schools as theatres for the struggle for freedom, democracy, equality and non-racialism, researchers remain intrigued by the persistent of past disparities nearly three decades into the democratic dispensation.
Goals: The present study presents qualitative data depicting an overview of the safety dichotomy in the school system in the Gauteng Province, in South Africa, with special attention paid to the functionality of school safety committees.
Methods: A qualitative design was used to explore and describe the functionality of safety committees, using document analysis on assessment tools generated by the School Safety Program. Thematic content analysis was used to process the raw data and obtain the qualitative data. Thematic synthesis proceeded to enable the researcher to group recurring topics into sub-themes to present and discuss the findings. Trends in the functionality of Former Model-C schools and township schools can then be analyzed in terms of broader themes related to structural and institutional equality.
Results: Although racial segregation has been abolished, School Safety Committees remain generally functional in schools which served predominantly White students under apartheid, while those in schools which served Black students remain mostly dysfunctional.
Conclusion: A one-size-fits-all approach to school safety appears inappropriate as different schools’ experiences of safety vary according to history, levels of resources and motivations to be involved in safety committees. Contextual factors require the approach to safety to be customized according to the social environment around the school communities.