Teachers who need a lesson

OUR country is blessed with some of the finest teachers in the world, but we also have some of the worst: clock-watchers and salarytakers who do as little as possible during school hours. Some even prey on their charges.

In a case we report on today, a teacher at a special-needs school in the Vaal appears to have done nothing while one of his pupils was brutally assaulted in front of him.

There’s something desperately wrong when children can’t be protected within the confines of a classroom. We all know about bullying on the playground and we all hate it, but we all know that it’s often difficult to police children once they’re released from class.

We redacted the details to protect his identity, which is also why we didn’t post the video clip on our internet site. The beating by the other boy was shameful. It was appalling. What beggared the imagination was the fact that the teacher sat in the classroom throughout without intervening, never even lifting his eyes from his book.

The teacher concerned appears to be a serial offender, with two previous instances of misconduct on his record. In the first, he paid a R6 000 fine and received a final warning for assaulting one of his pupils. In the second, he still has to appear in front of a disciplinary hearing on a charge of assault for throwing a plank at a pupil. And now this – for which he has been given five days to show cause why he shouldn’t appear before a disciplinary hearing.

We are all for due process and the presumption in our law – prescribed by our constitution – that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, but how many times must a person reoffend before being at least suspended? Why was this teacher even in the classroom?

He is a disgrace to everything we hold dear. The fact that he is employed at a special-needs school, where we would expect a higher level of care, only makes the situation worse.

We trust the education authorities will act appropriately.