EDITORIAL | Teachers who defy the educators’ code of conduct must be kicked out the classroom

It is mandatory for teachers to be registered with the South African Council for Educators (Sace) before they can be allowed to teach at a school. Unlike medical doctors who take the Hippocratic Oath upon admission into the practice of medicine, teachers don’t take such a pledge. But they do have to acknowledge the noble calling of their profession to educate and train pupils and to conduct themselves in a way that does not bring the teaching profession into disrepute.

They are obliged to comply with Sace’s “code of professional ethics for educators”. There are 18 salient points included in the code that focus on educators’ interactions with pupils. These stipulate that a teacher must refrain from any form of sexual harassment (physical or otherwise) of pupils; refrain from sexual relationships with pupils and refrain from any form of abuse, physical or psychological.

Aside from the code, teachers are deemed to be acting “in loco parentis” or on behalf of parents and guardians at school. Teachers have several weighty responsibilities which include imparting knowledge as well as shaping and moulding young lives. They are also expected to be role models displaying qualities such patience, empathy and compassion. The bottom line is that their conduct must be beyond reproach.

Sadly, some teachers are a huge embarrassment to the profession. The Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC), a bargaining council serving the public education sector, regularly publishes the sanctions imposed on teachers found guilty of misconduct. Instances of educators having sexual relationships with pupils feature prominently. During these ELRC hearings, the sickening and sordid details of teachers’ sexual relationships with schoolgirls are laid bare.    

It really beggars belief that teachers continue to flagrantly disregard the code of professional ethics, even in the face of being struck off the roll indefinitely which means being banned from teaching for life

Sace, which is also tasked with hauling errant teachers to disciplinary hearings, last week told parliament that 191 of the 764 cases reported to it between April last year and March involved sexual misconduct, while a further 248 cases concerned corporal punishment. Nineteen educators were struck off from the roll indefinitely during this period, most of them for sexual misconduct.

Sace’s CEO Ella Mokgalane shared some interesting research findings which indicated that most of the teachers found guilty of sexual misconduct have “double personalities”. About 7% to 11% of female teachers were abusing younger boys but the majority of the culprits were male educators with “double personalities whom you could trust with all your heart”.

The issue of teacher misconduct is often downplayed by nonsensical arguments that only a tiny percentage of the 447,000 educators at SA schools are found guilty of breaking the law. It should be emphasised that even if one teacher is found guilty of sex crimes against pupils or of assaulting pupils, or of any other transgression, we should be outraged.

It really beggars belief that teachers continue to flagrantly disregard the code of professional ethics, even in the face of being struck off the roll indefinitely which means being banned from teaching for life. Even the utter disgrace of having their names included in the department of social development’s child protection register as people unsuitable to work with children is not a sufficient deterrent.

Hopefully, a judgment handed down by Pretoria high court judge Stephanus Fourie on October 13 will stem the avalanche of corporal punishment cases. The judge ordered Sace to “reconsider and revise” its mandatory sanctions on contravention of the code of professional ethics, which was adopted in June 2020. This means that Sace must, in future, also pay due regard to the need for the inclusion of corrective and rehabilitative sanctions such as anger management and training on non-violent child discipline techniques.

Should we perhaps be much more vocal in our condemnation of teachers falling foul of the law? Should the education departments and teacher unions be fiercely campaigning at every turn for educators to uphold the code of professional ethics? Way back in 1982, Pink Floyd implored teachers “to leave them kids alone” in the popular hit song, Another Brick in the Wall. If only those tempted to break the law would take this lyric to heart.