Scourge of poor schools

Corporal punishment in our black schools, that is township and rural schools, seems to continue unabated, just as if it was never outlawed in terms of three laws.

These are the Schools Act No 27 of 1996, the Employment of Educators Act No 76 of 1998 and the National Policy Act of 1999.

Time and again newspapers and other interest groups like Equal Education or Section 27 report the abuse of learners at varying levels of gravity.

The death last year of eight-year-old Ntabiseng Mtambo who had meningitis but was assaulted by her teacher and then died seems not to have shocked some of our violence crazy educators.

Reports by the Daily Dispatch of learners from Zukhanye Senior Secondary School marching last month over corporal punishment and sexual abuse and also of MEC Mandla Makupula’s intervention to secure a transfer for Sive Joyi, 16, who lost sight in his right eye after an assault by his teacher underscore the gravity of this abuse.

At the same time Isolezwe reported that corporal punishment cases were being investigated at Masixole High.

These reports are indeed disturbing.

The poignant and confounding question is, why do teachers indulge in this criminal and unprofessional conduct when they know they face sanctions, not only from their employer, the Department of Basic Education, but from the South African Council of Educators (SACE) under which all educators are registered?

The stiffest sanction one could face is being struck off the educators’ roll.

SACE’s code of ethics states that in dealing with pupils an educator shall “avoid any form of humiliation, and refrain from any form of abuse, physical or psychological”.

This principle encapsulates and undergirds the required conduct and relationship between educator and learners.

Don’t our educators accept the rationale behind the banning of corporal punishment? Don’t they get it that the ban enhances the dignity of their learners in line with our Constitution? Do they fail to see that corporal punishment serves to cultivate a societal culture of violence? South Africa is already one of the world’s most violent countries – ranked 8th by the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP) in 2015. Are they not aware that this is a human rights issue?

My take is that they don’t accept the rationale behind the ban and couldn’t care less about it.

A snap survey by our education NPO indicates that almost all learners from foundation to senior phase are aware of and greatly miffed about the violation of their rights at the hands of their educators. But they are caught between a rock and a hard place. This is because the principal, to whom one must report this offence, is in many cases, a partner in the crime or buries his or her head in the sand.

Parents, due to a variety of factors, including illiteracy or having been socialised into beating themselves, abet these beatings.

At school governing body (SGB) meetings, where such beatings should be denounced during policy deliberations, it is not uncommon for parents to support offending educators. The latter’s cases are shoved under the carpet at school level and parents tend to only report these to the district office when their children are injured.

That the perpetrators’ own children often attend former model C schools where teaching takes place in more conducive atmospheres does not relieve but rather serves to perpetuate the culture of violence in our rural and township schools.

Often those in authority know that the pupils are too poor to call or travel to the district office or police station. And the police anyway have a reputation of treating abuse nonchalantly.

The perpetrators are also fully cognisant of the no-consequences management style of the regulating bodies. Why else would newspapers carry so many reports of learner abuse or assaults without there being a corresponding number of sanctioned educators?

Across the country, according to SACE, only 586 complaints were lodged in 2014-15; only 18 educators were suspended and only 10 were struck off the roll. These figures clearly show palpable under reporting and explain why this disgusting phenomenon of corporal punishment is continuing and has become a class issue.

Since some of our educators appear beyond repair in these schools, what must be done to completely eradicate this persistent evil?

In 2008-09 the provincial department launched an invaluable project – the “inclusion and infusion of HIV/Aids into the foundation phase curriculum” in all the districts.

The main objective was to enable educators to imbibe care and empathy as core values of their profession. Among the lessons inculcated was that educators oozing love and empathy should make their classrooms amiable and conducive to learning, knowing their charges are vulnerable and taking the view that they may represent the child’s only parent. In this setup corporal punishment is a taboo.

Today, due to HIV/Aids, Mzantsi is home to over 100000 child-headed households but alas, educators have beat the hell out of many of them.

Learners migrate en masse to former model C schools due to the poor culture of teaching and learning which includes this evil abuse.

Learners have a right to stand against this abuse tooth and nail and parents must stop sacrificing the rights of their children and keep on reporting abuse.

Equal Education, which is doing sterling work to support the cause of learners in eradicating any form of inequality, must be lauded.

The time has come for the department to name and shame all offending schools. SACE must deal harshly with unprofessional educators.

Violence begets violence – an egalitarian society can only be forged on principles and practices of respect. What a great pity this escapes hapless educators who are supposed to be more enlightened on all issues educational.

Vivi Mpikashe is a former principal of Sinikiwe High School, Mdantsane, and the founder of Velile Education and Development Solutions