Even though corporal punishment in schools is not allowed, there are still teachers that are using it in the Ilembe region.
They feel there is little being done by the department of education to deal with misbehaving pupils in schools and some parents are not co-operative.
The Courier spoke with several teachers from different schools around Ilembe – all of whom insisted on anonymity – who said they had a serious problem because pupils seemed to be in power in class, especially in high schools.
“We had an incident at my school were a child was swearing at the teacher and the teacher could not control his anger. He manhandled the pupil and guess what, the father of that child came to the school and attempted to assault him,” said one of the teachers.
Others said that whenever a teacher is caught punishing a child physically the department will come in guns blazing, paying little attention to what the child did.
“All teachers know the rule about corporal punishment, why would a teacher knowingly risk losing his or her job by assaulting a pupil? That pupil must have done something very wrong,” said one teacher.
Most of the schools have disciplinary measures that they use to deal with pupils. For instance, if a pupil does something against the school’s code of conduct, he or she can be taken for a disciplinary hearing or that child can be suspended for a certain period of time.
“Even if that pupil gets suspended, as teachers we are expected to help that child recover all the work he or she had missed while suspended.”
While teachers are not saying corporal punishment should be allowed, there are mixed feelings from parents.
Sthembiso Ngubane from Etete, who is working at one of the primary schools in KwaDukuza, said he feels that more investigation needs to be done so that the banning of corporal punishment does not negatively affect the teachers.
“Where I work, pupils are very disrespectful to the teachers and I feel sorry for them because there is nothing being done to protect them from rude pupils. Teachers are being treated as pupils and pupils treated as teachers. Something has to be done,” said Ngubane.
Ntombizodwa Thabekhulu from Maphumulo believes that teachers must find a way of dealing with trouble makers in schools, besides assaulting them.
“Corporal punishment was thought of as the best way of disciplining children but now that it is no longer allowed, it means teachers must get their thinking caps on and find a way to deal with the children,” said Thabekhulu.
Education department spokesperson, Muzi Mahlabi, said there is a document called alternative to corporal punishment and all teachers are trained on that.
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