South African schools are the most dangerous in the world, and if the issue is not addressed it will stunt children's education and jeopardise the future development of the country, according to the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR). But experts warn that safety is part of a more complex problem.

The SAIRR recently published statistics from the 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), a study by the US-based Institute for Education Sciences (IES) in 30 countries worldwide, in which South Africa was ranked last in school safety.

"It is not an exaggeration that we need to pay more attention to schools - this [safety] is certainly a cause for concern," SAIRR researcher and spokesman Thomas Blaser told IRIN.

South African pupils were asked whether they felt safe when they were at school, and if they had experienced incidents of stealing, bullying and injury to themselves or to others. According to the study, only 23 percent felt safe.

"The South African school system has distinguished itself by coming last or very low down the scale in a number of schooling quality surveys over recent years. It therefore comes as no surprise to learn that conditions in many schools are not only far from ideal but in many cases downright dangerous."

Blaser said the problem deserved urgent attention in parliament. "Failing this it is difficult to see how schools will produce the skills necessary to drive the South African economy."

In reaction to the report, the South African Department of Education said it was committed "to ensuring that schools are a safe and caring environment".

The department's director-general, Duncan Hindle, said in a statement released on Thursday: "The issue of school safety is a long-standing concern of the department, and over the past five years numerous steps have been taken to improve the situation," including, for example, "The recent launch of a programme to provide some schools with fences, lighting, security guards and metal detectors."

He said it was worrying that pupils felt they were not safe, but it should not then be taken that these pupils were in fact not safe. "Feeling something does not make it so. In fact, as noted by an independent commentator last week, in a system where some 12 million children attend school every day we have remarkably few incidents of violence in our schools."

Recent reports in the South African media have indicated a surge in shootings, stabbings, rapes and robberies. "The findings of the study suggested that media reports of school violence were not merely isolated incidents but part of a growing pattern of violence and disorder," Blaser said.

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is to publish a report on the poor levels of safety in South African schools at the end of February. Vincent Maoga, Media Relations Officer at the SAHRC, told IRIN that "An increasing pattern of complaints" had led the commission to start public hearings on the issue. "This means we have been receiving a lot of complaints about conditions at schools."

But John Pampallis, director of the Centre for Education Policy Development, a non-governmental organisation, said the findings were "exaggerated" and should be seen in perspective.

"Figures in the PIRLS report showed 47 percent of children worldwide feel safe at school - that means that more than half feel unsafe," he said. Among the best performers, the Scandinavian countries, 72 percent of pupils felt safe, "So around 30 percent feel less than safe."

Pampallis said the issues contributing to an unsafe environment needed to be viewed in isolation. "The study also included bullying, and building a wall around a school will not stop that."

According to Ezrah Ramsehla, chairman of the Gauteng Province National Professional Teachers Association of South Africa (NAPTOSA), "[Violence] is becoming quite a problem - we are getting more and more reports from our members. Drug use, especially in the Western Cape, and other substance abuse, like alcohol, is also on the rise. This means more students assault one another and now more teachers are also assaulted by learners."

He acknowledged that the safety issue at South African schools was part of a bigger problem in South African society. "The world around the schools is changing."

Pampallis maintained that "Safety at schools can't be seen in isolation - there are so many other problems - like poverty and unemployment - here, and that spills over into schools in the form of violence."

In a statement the SAIRR commented, "It would indeed be most surprising if schoolchildren did not share the fear that permeates South Africa because of its very high violent crime rates."

The PIRLS report pointed out that there was a positive relationship between school safety and reading achievement and, besides safety, South Africa also scored last in literacy.