By Mzukona Mantshontsho
“The question is not whether we can afford to invest in every child; the question is whether we can afford not to,” said the Bosasa Youth Development Centre in Mogale City.
The National Children and Violence Trust (NCVT) and Far North Secondary School took 23 ‘of the rather unruly’ Grade 8 learners to the Bosasa Youth Development Centre (BYDC) for a day’s experience of how life is like out there.
The BYDC had eight delegates who are serving their time at the centre to share their stories, experiences, how they got there and some of lessons learnt.
This was all meant to shift the mindsets f the learners of the importance of great behavior at school and at home to achieve all your intended goals and dreams as a young person.
The BYDC currently has 150 sentenced and 60 awaiting trial delegates between the ages of 12 and 21 years who are getting a second chance at the centre as opposed to serving time in a prison as per the order of the courts.
The centre has substance abuse rehabilitation facilities, anger management programmes, aggression replacement training, vocational training and finding your purpose in life skills and workshops.
Chief Social Worker Mabaso at the facility had this to say: “The centre is about self-reflection for the delegates; the delegates come here ‘wild’ and leave here decent enough to return to society. We have taken away their freedom; we manage their time while they are here, we tell them what to eat and when, we teach them about peer pressure and how to say NO”!
The delegates stressed that the learners who had come should never want to be in BYDC, the teachers in school should be treated as parents and respected, avoid conflict at home and school, choose your friends wisely, and that the learners should avoid drugs and substance abuse.
Speaking to the learners after their visit to BYDC they said: “We have received a wake-up call, we will change our ways, we will not be going to BYDC, thank you very much to the BYDC, the NCVT, Mam Sithole and our school, we now realize that we are loved, having been sent to Bosasa”.
Far North Secondary School serves the Zandspruit Informal Settlement community though it is in Cosmo City. The school is located in ward 100 since its establishment in 2014. The school is Quantile 1 with a feeding scheme.
It has 4 Grade 8 classes, 4 Grade 9 classes, 5 Grade 10 and 3 Grade 11 classes and in 2016 will grow into Grade 12. When the school was established, there were 713 learners with 45- 50 learners per class and 16 classrooms in total.
The school has no school library, hall and playing fields for the learners.
Learners travel by buses from Zandspruit to come to school every day, a 10-minute drive. Learners’ ages range between 13 and 19 years.
