Teachers have been urged to keep canes, plastic pipes and sticks away from school – so that the temptation to use them on pupils cannot arise
The advice was given on Wednesday in Durban, to principals at a SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) seminar on violence at schools.
SA Council of Educators chairwoman, Veronica Hofmeester, said discipline and violence were widespread, but rather than turning a blind eye to bad behaviour by pupils, teachers must correct it.
“We have the most violent schools in the world after Jamaica,” she said.
Hofmeester, who is also vice-president of Sadtu, said more than 22% of pupils had suffered or been threatened with violence, robbed or sexually assaulted at schools.
She said teachers bore the brunt of verbal abuse from pupils and urged them to report these incidents.
“So please don’t keep canes, plastic pipes and small sticks in your desk because you tend to use them at the end of the day,” she said.
“Principals and teachers tend to keep quiet when pupils swear at them. I am urging you to put all these incidents in a book and record it, have a witness and note what happened.
“Are we so used to violence that we ignore it? If we let them go without correcting that behaviour, what have we taught them? And I know some learners, when they can’t get to you, they will do something to your car,” she said.
Hofmeester said that in a recent study, high school pupils had revealed it was easy to take a gun to school or get drugs and alcohol.
She said teachers should never touch or be alone in a room with a pupil, allow pupils into their cars and never be social media friends with pupils.
She said abiding by these rules would safeguard them against disciplinary action when pupils made claims, warning that claims of a pupil were more likely to be accepted than the denials of a teacher.
KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education official, Dr Enoch Nzama, the head of the provincial curriculum management, said violence was causing instability at schools.
“We have witnessed, at a number of schools, that violence causes a stalemate and makes it difficult to deliver programmes,” he said.
Nzama said theft was also rife at schools.
“Everything we put in schools is stolen,” he said, listing computers, building material, roofs and steel gates.
“Teachers are not trained to deal with criminals and fight violence. There was an incident in uThungulu where a (woman) teacher was attacked by a pupil with his fists,” he said.
“When you attack a teacher, you are attacking your parent.”