Understandings of the Safety in School Concept among Secondary School Teachers

Safety at workplace is an issue that has been growing in the social context and is becoming an increasing concern of many parties that call for the need of actions to prevent injuries and other sort of dangerous situations. Safety in school, as a workplace for many, is not only the school's management responsibility but teachers, staff as well as the students have roles to play to ensure that schools are safe. Teachers need to have knowledge and awareness of safety in schools and embrace its related concepts as depicted by Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (OSHA 1994).This paper reports on a qualitative study, involving interviews with20 experienced secondary school teachers from the Northern States of Peninsular Malaysia. It examines the concept of safety in school from their perspectives. The interview data were analysed thematically. Among the concepts that had emerged from the analysis are safety in school as undeniably an important aspect that warrants attention from the related parties; safety in school as a condition whereby the community in the schools feel safe; and safety in schools as the awareness of being free from danger from the physical and psychosocial aspects. The results of the study provided evidence of limited conceptions of safety in school among the teachers. Hence, it indicates the need to provide teachers with relevant knowledge about matters pertaining to safety in school as described by the ministry.