Violent teachers face backlash
Horrific cases of assault still widespread despite classroom canings being banned 18 years ago
TEACHERS are still viciously assaulting pupils with plastic pipes and steel rods even though corporal punishment was banned more than 18 years ago.
As many as 1.5 million pupils across South Africa were victims of corporal punishment last year alone.
And experts say this is just the tip of the iceberg because many cases go unreported for fear of victimisation.
The South African Council for Educators received 637 complaints of corporal punishment between April 2012 and March this year. A further 35 cases have been reported to the council over the past two months.
In one of the most horrific cases, police arrested a teacher from Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg, for allegedly breaking a 12-year-old pupil’s hand with a steel pipe for incorrectly answering a maths question.
Gauteng department of education spokeswoman Phumla Sekhonyane confirmed on Friday that the teacher had been released on bail.
Figures from the General Household Survey released by statistician-general Pali Lehohla last week show that one in every five pupils in KwaZuluNatal and the Eastern Cape had been assaulted by teachers.
Recent cases of assault by teachers include:
A teacher at a high school in Tembisa in Ekurhuleni caught on video kicking a pupil and slapping two others;
A teacher suspended at Lugobe High in KwaZulu-Natal last year for allegedly using a plastic pipe to discipline pupils who arrived late at school; and
A teacher who beat 13 pupils at Holomisa Senior Secondary in Mqanduli in the Eastern Cape on their hands with a plastic pipe.
The problem has become so embarrassing that the South African Council for Educators is considering publishing the names of teachers permanently struck from the roll for this offence, on its website. The matter is expected to be debated at its next council meeting on June 24.
CEO Rej Brijraj said: “Other councils around the world do that. We are lagging behind in that aspect and we want council to consider it.”
It confirmed that 32 teachers were struck from the roll between April last year and March this year after being found guilty of inflicting corporal punishment.
Their sentences were suspended for between five and 10 years and the teachers were slapped with fines ranging from R5 000 to R15 000.
The council had reported several incidents of corporal punishment to the police for further investigation.
“It’s a crime under the laws of our country for teachers to assault learners. Teachers who cannot control their tempers are strongly urged to use alternative forms of discipline,” said Brijraj.
Anneline Turpin, a lawyer at the Legal Resources Centre in Durban, confirmed that she had assisted a pupil to successfully sue the office of the KwaZuluNatal MEC for education and the teacher for damages in October last year after the girl was assaulted in class with a plastic pipe.
Khulekani Skosana, secretary-general of the Congress of South African Students, said corporal punishment had been “banned [only] on paper”.
He said Cosas had called on pupils to fight back. “We are saying that if teachers hit you, you have every right to defend yourself . . . and hit them back.”
We are saying if teachers hit you, you have every right to defend yourself . . . and hit them back
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