Johannesburg - While the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) calls for pupils to retaliate when corporal punishment is administered, teachers are already victims of crime in schools.
About 52.1 percent of teachers have been victims of verbal abuse, 12.4 percent of physical abuse and 3.3 percent of sexual abuse by pupils, according to the National School Violence Study 2012/2013.
For 2014/2015, the South African Council for Educators received almost 700 cases against teachers.
Of the 650 complaints processed, 252 of them had to do with corporal punishment, 235 for racism and unprofessional conduct, and about 85 for sexual abuse.
Cosas has told pupils to physically retaliate and open cases against teachers who use corporal punishment.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said on Wednesday that the department was trying new strategies to ensure school violence was curbed.
The department would start training teachers “in values, human rights and citizenship” through universities, with a specific focus on life orientation teachers.
She said the department started implementing the National School Safety Framework for Safer Schools in April.
The programme is aimed at improving school management and classroom practice and includes the promotion of essential rights and values.
It was piloted at a few schools in the country and will be rolled out to all schools.
“Addressing school violence is the responsibility of all of us,” Motshekga said.
“Together, we can make a difference in the lives of young people within our educational institutions, and the department is committed to playing a leadership role.”
Meanwhile, the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has condemned Cosas’s call.
Its spokeswoman Nomusa Cembi said Cosas’s encouragement was irresponsible.
“The call is cheap populism, given that Cosas knows the procedures to follow in reporting teacher misconduct. It is also an indication of the degenerating state of affairs within the Cosas leadership collective,” she added.
Cembi said the union would hold talks with Cosas to discuss the issue, adding that “Sadtu condemns acts of corporal punishment in line with the union’s code of conduct. No teacher should administer this barbaric act in our schools”.
The Star