CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF SUICIDES COMMITTED BY PUPILS IN SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOLS – International Journal of Research in Education Humanities and Commerce

CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF SUICIDES COMMITTED BY PUPILS IN SOUTH AFRICAN SCHOOLS

Author: Agrippa Madoda Dwangu

ABSTRACT

Purpose – The purpose of this article was to navigate and investigate the causes, manifestations, and ramifications of suicides committed by students in South African Schools; more especially in so far as how these impact the wellness of school communities (parents, teachers, non–teaching staff, and students themselves) in schools affected.

Design/Methodology/Approach – The methodology that was used in the study is the Qualitative Research Methodology. Data collection and analysis were done through Literature Review by examining print media reports, journal articles, and data from published works of other researchers around the world. The approach adopted was the interpretive approach. The aim in using this approach was to explore and understand what the causative factors of suicides committed by pupils in schools are, in the world in general and in South Africa in particular. It was also to further establish what the ramifications of the suicides are in the emotional wellness of pupils and school communities affected. Ultimately, the purpose was also to come up with strategies that could be employed to circumvent the occurrence and adverse effects of suicides committed by students in schools, first on students themselves, and secondly, on school communities in general.

Interpretation is the most challenging part of qualitative research (Bakhshi, Weisi, and Yousofi 2019). Data must be interpreted on the basis of data collected to produce theories. Most of the questions that the researcher in this study needed to answer to interpret data were the ‘why’, the ‘how’, and the ‘what’ questions. Answers to these questions had to be tested for their trustworthiness through triangulation. Triangulation is described as an approach where the researcher uses either multiple methods, several theories, or different data sources – in time and space (Jentoft and Olsen 2019). By using triangulation, researchers have an opportunity to gain a better and broader understanding of the phenomena under investigation. The use of different methods and sources of data collection helps to support a finding by showing that independent measures agree with it, or at least, do not contradict it. This is the strategy that the researcher used in this study to interpret data. Finally, to ensure the trustworthiness of the interpretations, the researcher in this study compared the results and ideas as they came up from sources of available literature, media reports, Journal Articles, and published works of other researchers on the topic at hand to come up with recommendations.

Findings – The finding from this study is that the prevalence and gravity of suicides committed by students and the effects thereof, on the wellness of students in schools in South Africa, are extremely disastrous and too immense to ignore. Parents and teachers are not doing enough to engage students in the social-ills that lead to them committing suicide.

Findings further point to an indication that parents and teachers tend to take lightly the seriousness of the impact that the challenges that pupils face have on their emotional being. A revelation that comes out of the studies conducted is that in most instances parents and teachers themselves are to blame for incidents of pupil suicides that occur. They either fail to see the red flags or act carelessly on the red flags that they see by making disturbing utterances and insinuations that push children into committing suicide.

Research limitations/implications – The study was based only on the available literature, including journal articles and media reports. There was no information gathered directly from the pupils themselves for the purpose of getting from their personal experiences of factors that contribute to them committing suicide. The majority of the pupils in schools are under age and this made it difficult for the researcher to involve them in interviews on such a sensitive matter as suicide without the consent of their parents. The Research Code of Ethics does not allow researchers to carry out interviews with underage children without the consent of their parents.

Practical implications – Findings in this study will go a long way in assisting both the Department of Basic Education and teachers in schools to curb deaths resulting from suicide ideations on the part of learners in schools. The findings will also constitute an integral part of the literature that educators and educationists can use to mitigate the prevalence of suicide ideation and the commission of suicide by pupils in schools.

Originality/value – The study provides not only an insight into the glaringly high prevalence of suicides among pupils but also and more importantly, a theoretical and empirical contribution to the existing literature on the causative factors of suicide ideation and consequences thereof. It offers practical recommendations for the effective management of the devastating effects of the high incidents of suicides among pupils in schools.

Keywords: Suicide, ideation, incidence, mitigation, prevention.

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