Teachers found guilty of corporal punishment should be criminally charged.
This is the view of the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), which offered comments on the Basic Education Laws Amendment (Bela) Bill during the fourth round of oral hearings in parliament on Tuesday.
The LRC, a public interest non-profit law clinic, founded in 1979, stated that errant educators should be fined and imprisoned for a period not exceeding 24 months.
Provincial education departments handled 276 cases of corporal punishment between April last year and March.
The bill, introduced in parliament in December last year after being gazetted in October 2017, seeks to amend the SA Schools Act (Sasa) and the Employment of Educators Act (EEA), to align them with developments in the education landscape.
About 18,000 written submissions on the bill have been received.
The LRC stated the right to education “at a minimum” should also include scholar transport, school infrastructure, qualified educators, non-educator staff and learning and teaching support materials.
It said that though they welcomed the inclusion of grade R in compulsory education, “it is important that the grade R curriculum must be of quality and be age-appropriate”.
The Sasa states the admission age of a pupil to grade R at a public school must be four turning five by June 30 in the year of admission.
But the LRC said that during their work in early childhood development (ECD) centres, “many grade R teachers expressed that four-year-old children should be in an environment filled with play”.
“The current CAPS [Curriculum Assessment Policy Statements] curriculum for grade R can be described as a watered-down version of grade one, filled with academic content.
“There is room for an argument that this is not sufficiently focused on the perceptual development of the child.”
It is within this context that the LRC supports the compulsory provision to include grade R that is of quality and has age-appropriate early learning programmes.
— Legal Resources Centre
The LRC said the pre-school years, including grade R, “should be filled with concrete learning experiences and carefully curated guided play, which will then result in strong perceptual development in the child”.
“This is crucial to ensuring the child is ready to start abstract learning in grade 1.
“It is within this context that the LRC supports the compulsory provision to include grade R that is of quality and has age-appropriate early learning programmes.”
The law clinic expressed concern over a proposed clause in the bill that provided for pupils or their parents to apply to the governing body for an exemption from complying with certain provisions of the code of conduct.
“This provision would require transgender pupils to ‘out’ themselves to the governing to apply for an exemption from complying with a uniform policy.”
The LRC said the proposal was discriminatory and “creates undue stress and trauma on transgender pupils who are already vulnerable”.
“These pupils should not be forced to apply for an exemption.”
It argued parliament should place an obligation on governing bodies to take into account diverse sexual orientations and gender identities when drafting the code of conduct.
According to the LRC, pupils who identify with the gender assigned to their sex at birth do not have to apply for an exemption to wear the school uniform.
“It is, therefore, unacceptable to demand this of pupils who identify with a different gender than the one assigned to their sex at birth.”
Meanwhile, the general secretary of the National Association of School Governing Bodies (Nasgb), Matakanye Matakanya, said it distanced itself from proposals allowing for the use of alcohol on school premises for fundraising activities.
“Alcohol has a devastating impact on many communities, especially the poorer communities.”
He said a school’s language offerings must consider the pupil population and their home language needs.
Matakanye quoted the department of basic education’s policy on the incremental introduction of African languages, saying it is intended to promote and develop the country’s previously marginalised African languages.
“We support the view that the pupil population should influence language offerings in a school.”
He said proposals indicating that a governing body member must resign once they no longer have a child at school “creates a leadership vacuum”.
“The Nasgb opposes homeschooling, noting the advantages for placing pupils in communities with their peers. Only in exceptional circumstances should pupils be homeschooled, if there is adequate contact and engagement with others in a similar age group.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.