Abstract:

Background:
Imagine South Africa being one of the jurisdictions with top-quality education in the world. A society where the right to basic education and knowledge is not highly valued; but also implemented alongside appropriate safety and security networks, and high-level infrastructure and technology. A country like Finland, a tiny Nordic country with a population of about 5.5 million, is an example of how to manage safety and security at schools while at the same time offering quality education. In South Africa, and in the current wave of debates about schools safety and security and court cases on safety in schools, the ever-escalating progress and sustained quality education exhibited by the Finnish government is what we need. Much can be done in South Africa, including the improvement of the framework for managing safety and security in our schools. The United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child states every child has the right to be safe. Despite this mandate, South Africa has a serious challenge of insecurity at schools.

Purpose:
This research aims to:
(a) to explore the concept of safety as it is interpreted by schools in South Africa, and analyse through the synthesis of case law the extent to which schools are committed to the goal of creating safe and healthy school environments;
(b) to identify new organisational and management practices that promote the safety of school staff and users, and to determine if lean thinking can be used to reduce the barriers related to the cost and inefficiencies of managing and promoting safety.
In overall, the aim of this paper is to present an internationally competitive framework aimed at improving the management of school safety in South Africa.

Methodology:
Purely desktop and relying on secondary data obtained from institutions such as Stats South Africa, the South African Human Right Commission, and the Department of Basic Education. Three theories will be used in this research, name: Human Rights-Based Theory; Hirch’s theory of social control; and Sameroff’s Transactional Ecological Developmental model.

Conclusions:
According to a broad interpretation of safety, which encompasses well-being in its widest sense, a comprehensive school safety management approach had not been fully realised by schools in South Africa.

Keywords:

South African Constitution of 1996, United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, managing school safety, management barriers, educational management.