Strategies for preventing learner vandalism

Abstract

School vandalism is a serious problem as it places a heavy burden on education budgets and can cause teaching and learning to collapse. Learners have the right to be taught in neat, clean school buildings and grounds, to play and to develop their full potential. It is therefore important to find ways of preventing school vandalism. Against the background of a literature study, this article reports on the nature and extent of school vandalism, as well as on the strategies of a group of educators on preventing learner vandalism at schools. The literature study and the content analysis indicate that a combination of factors involving learners, educators, schools, parents, communities and the law cause learner vandalism. Prevention strategies should thus concentrate on all these aspects, otherwise they will be merely cosmetic and probably short-lived.