Addressing the troubling rise of misconduct in South African schools

THE Department of Basic Education has had a flurry of urgencies, which all relate to the overall development of learners at South African schools.

The recent incidents of school violence, crimes, sexual misconduct and deviance during schooling hours have also become the central focus of the department, and they have been proactive in conducting continual investigations.

The department has had to now shift focus from resource, infrastructural, and educational requisites and distribution to continual allegations of misconduct by educators who have also become perpetrators of these offences.

Many individuals who opt to become teachers do not realise that they are ultimately responsible for the emotional, psychological and physical well-being of the learners for the duration of the school day. 

Teachers should understand that their role can be termed as the school parent and that parents entrust teachers to care for their children appropriately during the school day.

Children need to be in a safe space during the day, which allows them to grow intellectually, physically and emotionally.

The idea is that South Africans should be developed into well-rounded individuals.

Teachers are not only responsible for educational learning outcomes, but for overall development, including social and communication skills, a child’s worldview, their ability to differentiate from fiction to reality, and their overall perception of the functioning of societies and appropriate human behaviour.

In many instances, the teachers fill the role of a mentor for the learner and become a central influence in their life.

When educators are then identified as perpetrators of crimes and sexual misconduct and reprimanded for inappropriate behaviour, the learners have to internally review their relationship with the teacher as well as question the character of the person.

This encourages young learners to doubt their judgement and feel insecure about their selected mentors. A key role of a teacher is also to develop a child’s confidence through personal encouragement, motivation and teaching and learning exercises.

Researchers (Shumba, 2002) indicate that teacher-on-learner violence has serious negative consequences for the learners. These learners can feel alienated and victimised as well as become emotionally and socially insecure. Other repercussions are that these learners can become socially withdrawn and lack confidence.

More importantly, learners can lose academic focus and sometimes opt to engage in criminal and deviant activities, ultimately opting to drop out.

As it is, South Africa is challenged with escalating school dropout rates, which inevitably has contributed towards unemployment and poverty. 

The incidents of abuse and sexual misconduct have become prevalent, especially in recent years and with the increasing use of digital technologies, verbal abuse and sexual harassment have become difficult to monitor, evaluate and curb.

The varied types of verbal abuse and the usage of vulgar and inappropriate messages that demonstrate discrimination, prejudice and racism are predominantly communicated via text on a digital communication platform.

In some instances, there have been verbal incidents, and the witnesses to these interactions have strengthened the investigation and the regulated consequences at school thereafter. 

This behaviour persists and we are yet to identify a strong measure that can deter learners from behaving in this manner. 

Learners are yet to fully comprehend the psychological and emotional impact of verbal abuse, discrimination and related sexual misconduct and cannot consider and process the negative experience, especially if they are the perpetrators.

These behaviours become further entrenched within a school’s culture, especially if the teachers are the perpetrators of verbal abuse and sexual misconduct. 

Scholars Naicker, Myburgh and  Poggenpoel (2014) have revealed that victims of teacher abuse may experience anger, fear and feelings of shame and blame.

These instances have become prevalent in Confucian and African cultures where gurus, teachers and the elderly are deemed to command much respect and can be role models to the young. Often educators and the elderly are rarely questioned or reprimanded in general for inappropriate behaviour. 

International and national research has indicated that there is a lacuna of research that specifically documents and analyses teacher-on-learner abuse and violence.

In general, South Africans have not been alerted as to how widespread this problem can be either. Yet the problem is becoming prevalent in South Africa, the USA, Australia, Zimbabwe, Italy, and Hong Kong, among other countries. Longobardi et al.  (2019,  p.56) in  Italy found that teachers often forced learners “to stay outside in the cold or heat”, stand or kneel in such a way that it hurts or have their ears twisted by their teachers as punishment when they disobey or misbehave in the classroom.

A survey indicated that more than 40% of American teachers have also admitted to bullying learners in the classroom. 

Society needs to become aware of the varied types of violence that can be enacted upon learners, and the consequences of teacher-on-learner violence should be highlighted. We need to commit to not joining our international counterparts in the global survey of countries that have an added challenge such as this one.  

DAILY NEWS