Safety of our teachers is vital

They gird their loins every day and go onto the battlefield to do their duty to South Africa – but for them, there will be no homecoming parades, no medals of honour, no memorials in stone.

Yet teachers are some of the unsung heroes of our deeply dysfunctional society.

It is true that some of them are lazy and couldn’t care less whether their charges pass or fail. Others see their pupils as something to be preyed upon for their own sexual satisfaction.

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Yet, far more of our teachers are trying to make a difference, to make a better life for all (to steal the idea of a discredited political organisation we know of).

Sadly, they put their own personal safety – and even their lives – on the line, just going into classrooms. Many of our schools are breeding grounds for gangsters – drug abuse is rife and weapons are often smuggled into school grounds to show off, or to settle scores.

All the while there is a deep disrespect for teachers, leaving them the targets of ridicule, or even physical assault.

According to teacher unions, many of these attacks go unreported, save to generate mirth on social media because someone always has a phone ready to video anything.

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Is this awful state of affairs the fault of giving too many rights to children – rights many adults today never had when they were growing up?

Or, more likely, is it because these criminal and undisciplined children are merely a reflection of the world outside – the world in which they are raised?

They learn disrespect and sometimes violence, from their parents and families – and those families don’t set strict enough parameters, so youngsters are not led astray into the world of gangs and drugs.

All of us owe it to our teachers to make their world safer.