Teachers want other options to discipline pupils

TEACHERS are fed up with ill-disciplined pupils and are calling for alternatives to replace corporal punishment in the classroom.

This is according to the findings of a recent study conducted by Professor Sitwala Imenda, the head of the National Teachers Union (Natu).

The research was conducted using a sample of teachers in four regions, two in Mpumalanga and two in KwaZulu-Natal.

Teachers were asked to list the top 10 challenges they faced in the classroom and recommend what was needed to be done to address these challenges.

Having to deal with ill-disciplined pupils was the main challenge most teachers expressed.

The teachers said their frustration was that pupils deliberately disobeyed them knowing that they would not be disciplined.

Teachers used to cane pupils until corporal punishment was banned in 1996. It is now a fireable offence.

Imenda’s research concluded that teachers were concerned that they were left with no other ways to discipline pupils.

He said teachers complained that removing disobedient pupils from the classroom was one of the solutions they often used, but it deprived the pupil of his or her right to education.

Imenda, formerly of the University of Zululand, said although he was not trained in the field of disciplining pupils, there was a great need for other methods of discipline in the classroom.