Corporal punishment alive and well at PTA’s oldest school
Children as young as 7, attending the Burgher Right Primary School in the west of Pretoria are purportedly subjected to corporal punishment. It has been four months since incidents of raging teachers pinching and hitting children with sticks and cricket bats have been reported to the department of education. But nothing has been done so far.
A teacher at the oldest primary school in Pretoria got the boot in November last year after he lifted the lid on the school’s policy of administering corporal punishment.
Johan Nel (41), English reading teacher at the Burgher Right Primary School in the west of Pretoria, is now taking the school to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
He contends his contract was ended without any valid reason.
But his biggest concern, he said in an exclusive interview with Rekord, was that children appeared to still be subject to the educator’s stick, baseball bats and rulers.
Nel started teaching at the school in 2009.
“The first time I arrived, the staffer I replaced used a cricket bat to hit a pupil on the buttocks to demonstrate to me how easy the job was.”
The next few years he experienced similar conduct by other teachers resulting in endless discussions with the principal, Wessel Badenhorst.
He has been forced to discuss the use of corporal punishment during personnel meetings. Most of the personnel were not against it “as the Bible allows corporal punishment”.
Nel witnessed, reported and documented incidents ranging from pinching children on the arm, verbal abuse and children being hit with sticks and wooden spoons on their hands and buttocks.
He made video recordings where children as young as 10 spoke about the abuse.
Four young girls are seen in this video. They were bending over, touching their toes, demonstrating how the teachers would hit them.
Rekord is also in possession of a voice recording made in June 2015, of a meeting between Nel and the school’s SMT (senior management team), that casts serious doubt on Badenhorst’s credibility in this case. “Every teacher could decide for themselves whether they want to administer corporal punishment or not.”
According to Nel, 10 out of the 45 teachers use corporal punishment to maintain discipline. “Some teachers send the pupils outside, standing for hours with their hands on their heads. They view it as a way to discipline them. During those hours no teaching takes place.”
Nel said he witnessed an incident where a female teacher hit a grade 4 pupil constantly on the head with a pencil case.
“The pencil case broke from the force of the strike,” he said. “I reported the incident, and the parents wanted to take steps against the teacher.”
But Badenhorst purportedly pleaded “not to report the matter to the department because it was an isolated incident and would never happened again”.
The teacher, whose name is known to Rekord, was only reprimanded by the principal.
“The incident was not reported to the department of basic education, as per the department’s prescription – as an official circular sent to all primary schools, including Burgher Right, in the district stated,” Nel said.
“This teacher has continued with her behaviour; pinching the girls and hitting boys and girls on their buttocks and hands.”
Another male teacher, said Nel, is using a stick called Uncle Small which caused the children endless tears and humiliation.
Badenhorst denied any allegations of corporal punishment saying that “things like that never happened at our school.”
Contrary to Badenhorst’s statement, the school was in the news in 2012 after a teacher hit a child so brutally that he had to be hospitalised.
The teacher was fired on the spot when the child’s parents demanded action.
“None of the children have been complaining to their parents as they feared the rage of the teachers,” said Nel.
All these recordings and paper trails are in the hands of the department of education, but since October last year no steps have been taken against the teachers who allegedly abuse the pupils.
“I have been in constant communication with the department, but it seems if they just do not want to do anything about it.”
Oupa Bodibe, from the Gauteng department of education, said the department was still gathering facts and could not yet respond to Rekord’s enquiries.
Badenhorst further said he was not allowed to comment on any of Nel’s allegations as the department was busy with an investigation.
Pupils went back to school on Wednesday.
Fact box
The use of corporal punishment in schools was outlawed by the South African Schools Act, 1996.
According to section 10 of the Act:
– No person may administer corporal punishment at a school to a pupil.
– Any person who contravenes subsection (1) is guilty of an offence and liable, on conviction, to a sentence which could be imposed for assault.
Source: The SA School Act of 1996
Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram.
- We have exciting news! We’re offering a free alert to help you always be in the loop. Send an email with the word ‘Subscribe’ to breakingnews@rekord.co.za to receive your free daily breaking news update.
