Thirty-six teachers were removed from the roll by the South African Council for Educators (Sace) between April last year and March after they were found guilty of serious offences.
This is almost double compared with 19 in the 2021/22 financial year.
At least 31 of the 36 teachers were removed indefinitely, including 18 for raping pupils as well as having sexual relationships with them.
Being removed indefinitely is the harshest sanction as it means that the teacher has no reasonable prospect of teaching again.
A further four of the 31 teachers were involved in sexually assaulting colleagues, according to Sace’s recent annual report.
Besides the 31 educators, a teacher’s name was removed from the register for 10 years for absenteeism and another for five years for verbally abusing and humiliating a colleague.
A further 77 teachers had the removal of their names from the register suspended for a certain period after they were found guilty of a range of offences. They were fined and/or issued with a reprimand.
Sace is responsible for registering fit-to-practice teachers and lecturers and promoting their professional development.
While the number of cases of corporal punishment and cases of teachers assaulting colleagues has dropped to 212 from 248 previously, Sace said that despite workshopping many teachers on the dangers of hitting pupils, it remains on the rise.
“Educators have highlighted issues of ill-discipline in schools and that they have no other ways to deal with ill-disciplined pupils,” Sace said in the report.
“Educators still resist calls from Sace to refrain from administering corporal punishment. It is our submission that there should be more interventions and advocacy aimed at conscientising educators on the dangers associated with corporal punishment.”
Corporal punishment was outlawed in SA schools more than 26 years ago.
Between April last year and March, Sace received a total of 734 cases of misconduct compared with 764 between April 2021 and March 2022.
Some of the 734 cases included:
- Absenteeism: 91 (no figures from 2021/22)
- Abuse of pupils, bullying, humiliation and defamation of character: 58, down from 127 the previous year
- Fraud, including exam fraud: 36, down from 75
- Racism and improper language: 9, down from 10
- Sex relationships, rape: 163, down from 191
- Assault, corporal punishment 212: down from 248
We are concerned by the rising instances of corporal punishment indicating that educators may need more rigorous training on alternative forms of discipline.
— South African Council for Educators
According to the annual report, from April to June last year, it received an “influx” of new complaints.
“Council observed with concern the nature of the cases received. The majority of them were for the assault of pupils, followed by sexual misconduct and very few for the assault of colleagues.
“These trends are worrying, and the question to be asked is why is there still so much physical abuse? It is worrying that corporal punishment of pupils still takes centre stage and seems to lead the pack.”
Between January and March this year, the council received more cases of teachers assaulting, victimising or humiliating colleagues, “which is a worrying trend”.
“In the future, council will conduct advocacy with a view to restoring professionalism within the teaching profession and try to curb such unprofessional behaviour,” the report stated.
A total of 254 investigations on new cases and 540 on old, rolled-over cases as well as 122 hearings were finalised.
“The council’s disciplinary hearing processes, like with other bodies, occur under the cloud of adversarial resistance by accused educators.”
“The resistance is caused by these accused educators who anticipate that they may lose their livelihood and would therefore do whatever it takes to frustrate council’s disciplinary processes.
“Educators do all in their power to avoid attending hearings for fear of losing their teaching licence. During virtual hearings, accused educators would present several excuses such as load-shedding and lack of resources, including data, to appear before Sace.”
It said that one of its challenges was the lack of co-operation from witnesses, including victims, parents and other participants which results in delays in the finalisation of cases.
“In some instances, Sace ends up having to perform multiple trips to schools to meet up with witnesses.”
It said there was also bullying of witnesses and intimidation of complainants by accused teachers and their colleagues as well as fellow pupils.
“This results in the victims refusing to testify or avail themselves for fear of reprisals by their tormentors.”
Demichelle Petherbridge, an attorney at Section27, said they commended Sace for informing teachers about the dangers of corporal punishment.
“However, we are concerned by the rising instances of corporal punishment indicating that educators may need more rigorous training on alternative forms of discipline.”
She said they noted that Sace imposes lenient sanctions on teachers found guilty of corporal punishment, which contributes to the relaxed enforcement of the prohibition.
“Section27 was involved in litigation before the Supreme Court of Appeal to have Sace’s sanctioning policy amended to ensure that educators are properly sanctioned, which would include rehabilitative sanctions such as anger management classes and training in alternative disciplinary techniques.”
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