Rules will teach sex pest teachers a lesson

IN WELCOMING the new employment regulations to deal with teacher misconduct recently gazetted under the Employment of Educators Act by the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, the IFP calls on the KZN MEC for Education, Kwazi Mshengu to ensure that these new guidelines are adhered to in KwaZulu-Natal.

We believe this is a step in the right direction because in 2020 the SA Council of Educators (SACE) ranked KwaZulu-Natal as the province with the highest number of sexual misconduct cases by teachers, followed by Gauteng.

The IFP has on numerous occasions emphasised that such offenders have no place in the education profession. They must be named, shamed and banned for the rest of their lives from the teaching profession.

The Gazette has made it clear that any person found guilty of sexual offences committed against children and mentally disabled people and whose name appears on the National Child Protection Register and the National Register of Sex Offenders, cannot be employed unless their name has been removed from such registers.

In addition, teachers who committed an act of sexual assault against a pupil, or another employee, or have a sexual relationship with a pupil of the school would face an indefinite ban.

The IFP welcomes these steps. Such predators must be made an example of.

Teachers should lead by example by being professional at all times. Children should feel safe and protected in the presence of teachers.

It must be made mandatory that during the shortlisting and interview processes all applicants for teaching or promotion posts must be checked to ascertain whether their names appear in the Sex Offenders Register before employing them.

If their names do appear in the register, they must not be offered employment as it would be a violation of legislation such as the Child Protection Act.

The IFP calls for a zerotolerance approach in this regard. THEMBENI

|