On April 9, the ministry of basic education gazetted conditions which speak to the re-employment of an educator following a dismissal as a result of misconduct. These conditions include the compulsory time-frame in which they cannot be re-employed, following the dismissal.
Signed by minister of basic education Angie Motshekga, the conditions detail how long an educator can be kept out of a public school depending on the gravity of their misconduct.
One of the conditions is the indefinite ban from re-employment, that will now apply to educators found to be committing an act of sexual assault on a learner, student, or other employees; or found having a sexual relationship with a learner of the school; seriously assaulting, with the intention to do grievous bodily harm to a learner, student or other employee; or sexual harassment involving learners.
This includes the court conviction for murder, attempted murder, rape, indecent assault or assault grievous bodily harm. This is the condition that is the focus of this piece.
This is no small feat, as the executive director of the National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA (Naptosa), Basil Manuel, stated. Before the amendment, teachers could apply for re-employment immediately after being found guilty of misconduct, more so by moving to another province.
"Alternatively, some provinces were a little bit stringent. For small offences they kept people out of employment for years," Manuel said speaking to the Daily Maverick. “What this [amended terms and conditions of employment] does is regulate how long a discharge is valid for.”
I am always conflicted when it comes to addressing matters such as this because to me it feels like applauding a fish for swimming. It is also sometimes very difficult to wrap my head around the fact that some of these strides are only being made in 2021. I say this because some of these, to me, and a lot more people I am sure, are no brainers.
I guess the activist in me, views some of these changes and wishes they had been an organic part of our society’s views and did not come to fruition only after so many years and after so many people have become victims of the snail pace change in our society.
Ideally, it should be that, even 10 years ago, the natural response to the sexual misconduct of an educator would have left them with an indefinite ban from teaching. And many other children did not knowingly or unknowingly have to be taught, share school grounds or be around a sexual predator.
How I wish we existed in a world where women and children did not have to mobilise, petition, march or have to break barriers before issues such as this are taken seriously enough to come with sanctions that are as equal to the harsh crimes.
Nonetheless, it is somewhat important to acknowledge such strides being made, especially in a country that seems to put issues to do with gender-based violence in the back burner.
It is correct that serious offences such as the sexual assault of learners are accompanied by an indefinite ban from re-employment. Because as adults, they know the incorrect nature of their behaviour, they know the consequences thereof and still chose to act in the manner they did. In a space that is inhabited by the most vulnerable in our society, the children.
The SA Council for Educators (Sace) reports that assault, sexual misconduct, rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment are some of the leading kinds of cases of professional and unethical misconduct lodged against educators.
In November 2020, Sace told parliament’s basic education committee that, “Sexual offences remain in second place as a category of misconduct cases levelled against educators and they have increased by 43% during the period under review.”
All sectors of our society should be free of danger but more so the school environment, it is not unreasonable to have higher expectations for the schooling context because not only do our children spend the bulk of their lives in their learning environments, but they occupy this space during the formative years of their lives.
The school environment has a great influence on the ideas children form about themselves, their identity, and how they will view the world or make sense of it. A child that has been abused in the school environment, whether by fellow peers or by educators, will likely have that follow them through their lives, even as adults.
And this experience will likely have an impact on how they view society.
Therefore, our fixation on making the school environment a place which is free from violence of any kind, is not misplaced because of the lasting, grave consequences it may have on one's life.
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