Pretoria - The SA Council for Educators (Sace), which imposed “shockingly lenient” sanctions on two teachers who pleaded guilty to assaulting pupils in their classrooms, should reconsider the punishment meted out.
This is according to Section27, which on behalf of the Centre for Child Law, turned to the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, yesterday in an effort to protect pupils from further harm and ensure that the ban on corporal punishment was taken seriously.
The court is also asked to order Sace to revise its mandatory sanctions meted out to teachers in terms of its code of professional ethics guidelines which the organisation used when sanctioning educators for misbehaviour.
The application was yesterday postponed by the court to a later date, which is yet to be determined. Judge Dawie Fourie postponed the matter on procedural grounds.
The Children’s Institute joined the legal proceedings as a friend of the court to voice their concerns about the fact that these teachers were given a slap on the wrist after they had severely assaulted two children.
The two unrelated cases related to the assault of a 7-year-old and a 10-year-old. In the first case, a Gauteng boy in Grade 2 was hit on the back of his head with a pipe by his teacher in 2015. He suffered head injuries which became infected and resulted in his hospitalisation.
In the second case in Limpopo in 2019, a 10-year-old girl in Grade 5 was slapped over the head and on her cheek by her teacher. She was left with bleeding ears and suffered ongoing complications as a result and had to repeat the year.
The parents of both learners have shared the fear their children felt in going back to school.
After the teachers pleaded guilty, Sace imposed sentences according to its Mandatory Sanctions document. The sanctions imposed included the educators’ removal from the roll of educators, but this was suspended for 10 years. This meant that they would only be suspended if they again within this period were convicted on the same charges.
In addition, the teachers received a fine of R15 000, of which R5 000 was suspended, leaving R10 000 payable over 12 months.
Both the Centre for Child Law and the Children’s Institute view this sanction as shockingly lenient and inadequate, especially in considering the injuries the children have suffered.
Sace is the professional body responsible for maintaining and protecting the ethical and professional standards for educators.
Its code of professional ethics states that educators must refrain from any form of abuse – physical or psychological – and that they are mandated to investigate and punish any teacher found guilty of this.
It is stated in court papers that this body is thus an important institution which can address and stop the use of corporal punishment in schools.
It was argued that they were, however, failing in this role by imposing very lenient punishments on offending teachers.
According to the Centre for Child Law, teachers' violent behaviour should be addressed and they should be equipped with the tools to manage and discipline pupils in a different way.
The Children’s Institute will argue that even the children who witnessed the punishment being meted out to their classmates were in many cases affected. It said there was no excuse for assaulting children, as there were many different ways in which to discipline them.
The Centre for Child Law said despite the ban on corporal punishment, it was still rife at schools across the country.
The Children’s Institute will argue that what is missing in Sace’s regulatory framework is consideration of the rights of the child learners who have been at the receiving end of a violation by an educator.
According to it, studies have shown that rather than correcting unwanted behaviour, physical violence meted out to learners may aggravate their behavioural problems. In opposing the application, Sace said it stood by its guidelines.