Durban - Although corporal punishment was made a thing of the past according to South African law, recent data published by Statistics South Africa indicated that this was in fact not the reality of many schools in the country.
The statistics body defined maltreatment at school as inclusive of corporal punishment or physical violence by teachers, physical abuse by other learners or verbal abuse by either the teachers or other pupils.
The Children Exposed to Maltreatment, 2021 report published on Tuesday revealed that corporal punishment was still used as a form of discipline, despite its abolishment in 1997.
The report showed that the most common form of violence experienced by children was corporal punishment by teachers. Of the millions of children who experienced violence at school, close to 84% experienced corporal punishment by teachers, followed by verbal abuse by teachers (13,7%) and physical violence by teachers (10,6%).
It showed that in 2019, an estimated six out of 10 children who lived in rural areas experienced corporal punishment by teachers, while seven in 10 children who experienced physical violence by teachers in 2019 lived in urban areas.
Nationally, about one in five children (18.5%) aged five to 17-years-old experienced some sort of violence at school, including corporal punishment or verbal abuse in 2009. Just over a million out of 13 million school-going children aged five to 17-years-old reported that they had experienced some form of violence in 2019, indicating a reduction of 8.2%.
Provincially, KwaZulu-Natal took the lead with the highest percentage of children who experienced violence at school (35.1%), followed by Eastern Cape (18.1%), Gauteng (11.8%) and North West (10,2%).
This has since sparked condemnation from the various educational bodies.
Thirona Moodley, provincial Chief Executive Officer of the National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) said that they opposed all forms of assault or corporal punishment against learners, noting that is had been outlawed in the South African school’s Act and was an offence in terms of the Educator’s Act. She said these were considered criminal offences that went against the state's code of professional ethics and that it inflicted mental and physical harm on pupils.
Moodley said that corporal punishment had dire consequences for teachers, such as dismissal or being struck off the South African Council for Educators register.
“Corporal punishment has huge consequences for the learners and the teachers. Teachers are really frustrated at the moment regarding the discipline of learners, the large sum of class sizes and the pressure presented by the profession. So we appeal to the teachers and principals at schools to capacitate our teachers to handle discipline, large class sizes and develop them professionally so they do not resort to corporal punishment out of frustration,” she said.
She said that the union undertook ongoing training for their members regarding classroom management.
Doctor Ngema, general secretary of the National Teachers Union (Natu) said that they were worried about the high incidents of maltreatment of pupils, adding that teachers found committing this act would be liable to serious misconduct, be charged or even dismissed for it.
“We are rolling out workshops on Alternatives to Corporal Punishment to equip our members to use non-violent ways of disciplining students. Students should not fear their teachers and an intimidating learning environment cannot be productive,” he said.
Matakanye Matakanya, secretary general of the National Association of School Governing Bodies (NASGB) said that the association condemned the abuse of children through corporal punishment.
He encouraged parents to report such incidents to the SAPS, and called on the police to act swiftly.
“We further call upon the Department of Basic Education to monitor schools and punish those who bypass the title of law, and for the school governing body (SGB) to report all activities to authorities,” he added.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE