SADTU supports COSAS’s Learn Without Fear Campaign

18 March 2016

The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) supports the Congress of South African Student’s (COSAS) campaign – Learn Without Fear - which aims to highlight the unsafe conditions that learners are subjected to in their learning environments.

As part of the campaign, thousands of learners will on Friday, 18 March, hold a rally at Orlando Stadium in Soweto.

As SADTU, we commend this gallant effort of COSAS who, like the youth of the June 1976 Uprisings who took to the streets to protest the imposition of Afrikaans, are taking the lead towards ensuring that the doors of learning are open.

Although the majority of schools have become no-fee schools in South Africa, many learners are still not accessing their right to education because of lack of safety in schools. 

Some schools have become havens for drug peddlers and gangsters’ paradises thus blocking many from accessing their right to education. Poor infrastructure has led to many learners not accessing their right to education. 

We are fully aware of learners who have lost their lives through lack of, among other things, proper sanitation facilities in schools.

Many learners die in accidents due to a lack of proper scholar transport. Bullying and sexual harassment have deterred many from accessing this basic right that has the potential to better the lives of many learners.

As a Union of educators, we identify with the plight of the learners. We therefore urge the parents, communities and government to support this campaign and ensure that learners access the right to learn without fear.

Issued by Mugwena Maluleke, General Secretary, SADTU, 18 March 2016