Educators council fails to check registers

THE South African Council of Educators (SACE) has not been able to check the names of potential teachers who might be sex pests against the National Register for Sex Offenders or the Child Protection Register.

SACE‚ the professional council for educators‚ started making requests to access the registers only last year, it revealed in a reply to a question posed by the DA.

“The admission by SACE that they have never checked teachers against the registers is a damning indictment against the body as well as the Minister of Basic Education‚ Angie Motshekga‚” DA member on the parliamentary portfolio committee on basic education Sonja Boshoff said.

She said this admission by SACE meant that for at least 10 years‚ people who were not fit to teach children might have been granted licences to do so.

The Child Protection Register is kept by the Department of Social Development and contains a list of people who are unsuitable to work with children.

The National Register for Sex Offenders‚ which is kept by the Department of Justice, lists those found guilty of sexual offences against children and mentally disabled people.

Boshoff said the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act of 2007 stated that a licensing authority may not issue a licence for teachers without first checking the sex offenders’ register.

“SACE is clearly in breach of law by its failure to check both records and may have been in breach for a full decade.”

The party had asked the minister whether the SACE had requested access to the registers for the purpose of vetting educators in the past two years.

In its reply‚ SACE said it had written a letter last year requesting access to the registers.

“This move was taken due to the limitations of access to the National Child Protection Register,” the SACE said in its reply.

It said it had written directly to the justice department requesting access to the Sex Offenders Register.