Isaacs is right about the department usually taking pupils’ side

UT THE protector’s office is about much more than findings in high-profile cases. In 2112/13, it finalised 22 400 complaints of the 37 770 received. The average case load per investigator was 200, but in Gauteng it was 518 cases. In KwaZulu-Natal it was 301 and in the Western Cape 242. In short, they are snowed under.

In the protector’s recent report for 2014/15, it received 26 070 complaints, and 20 231 were finalised. There is a lot of unseen work, then – the everyday grievances of the ordinary citizens.

Will the government properly fund a robust agency? This remains a telling test of its repeated commitment to transparency and clean, efficient administration. I WOULD like to support Brian Isaacs in his claim that the Department of Education more often than not sides with pupils and most times do not give teachers a fair hearing in misconduct cases brought before it.

I have worked for the department for 20 years as educator and deputy principal of Cathkin Senior Secondary, and I have often had to mediate in misconduct hearings.

It is my experience that pupils often either exaggerate or even fabricate charges against educators who try to discipline them.

Educators are under constant attack by unruly pupils who think they can get away with murder because educators have been rendered powerless to discipline them by the Department of Education.

These pupils often become repeat-offenders with offences such as destruction of school property or educator’s cars, bullying other pupils, disrespect and aggression towards teachers in class, etc.

When the school tries to suspend or expel these pupils, the right of the child to an education is often used as an excuse to keep that child at the school. What about the rights of other children and educators who suffer abuse at the hands of these children, and often their parents as well, on an ongoing basis?

I am not a proponent of verbal or physical abuse against a pupil, but sometimes educators just lose control. They are, after all, human. Often the department takes the easy way out when it comes to misconduct charges against educators.

It is, after all, easier to discipline an educator, since educators are employees of the state and less likely to offer too much resistance for fear of victimisation, whereas parents, especially in middleclass schools, can cause problems for the department.

I thank God that we still have some educators, like Brian Isaacs, who refuse to give up disciplining pupils despite all the odds against them.

I know many educators who have long given up, hence the mayhem at schools today. God be with you, Brian, and all educators of your calibre.