Free State education MEC on a drive to address corporal punishment

The Free State education MEC is set to address principals in the Odendaalsrus district on Monday to address issues of corporal punishment.

This follows a crescendo of calls for the education department to train teachers on how to discipline pupils without violence after a teacher from Wessel Maree Secondary School in Odendaalsrus was suspended for pushing a pupil to the ground in a video that went viral on social media.

According to spokesperson Howard Ndaba, the department was planning to address principals and the school governing bodies (SGB) from former model C schools on issues related to “social cohesion, corporal punishment and all those antisocial behaviour”.

However, education expert Prof Brahm Fisher said the law has been clear in the past 20 years that teachers were not allowed to physically discipline pupils, as there were alternatives that could be used apart from corporal punishment.

“South Africa has a number of laws that protect [pupils] from corporal punishment and abuse. Section 12(1) of the constitution states that everyone has the right to freedom and security,” he said.

“Including the rights: to be free from all forms of violence, not to be tortured, treated or punished in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way.”

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Ndaba added that Section 28(1)(d) protected every child from maltreatment, neglect, abuse or degradation, while Section 10 stated that everyone has inherent human dignity and the right to its protection. Fisher said Section 10(1) of the SA Schools Act clearly stated that no person may administer corporal punishment at a school against a pupil, and a person who contravenes the provision was guilty of a criminal offence.

“And if convicted can receive a sentence that can be imposed for assault. The 1997 Abolition of Corporal Punishment Act banned corporal punishment in schools as well,” Fisher said.

Former teacher and the School of Open Learning professor at the University of Free State, Corene de Wet, said teachers were often abused by pupils to a point where they burst and react to the assaults.

“I’m speaking from a perspective of the teachers, but we all know that whatever you do, keep your hands in your pockets,” she said.

“However, we need to understand that the teachers at this stage are very intimidated, they are afraid to do anything, so children get away with terrible misbehaviour.”

Meanwhile, Ndaba condemned rumours the suspended teacher was not qualified and also said that they were conflicted as some pupils from the school were calling for him to return.

“He is not employed by the department, he was employed by the SGB. He is a qualified teacher,” he said.

– reitumetsem@citizen.co.za