Girl (8) wins case against edu dept
The department of education has to cough up a total of R191 750 in damages in a civil claim following the assault of an eight-year-old learner at the Boiketlo Primary School in Seshego.
POLOKWANE – The department of education has to cough up a total of R191 750 in damages in a civil claim following the assault of an eight-year-old learner at the Boiketlo Primary School in Seshego.
A teacher at the school, Raesibe Mary Sekhaolelo, instructed a co-learner to discipline children making noise in her class on May 3 2012.
The learner was handed a stick by the teacher and then started to assault the group of learners one by one with the stick, on the palms of their hands.
The plaintiff, a girl who was eight years old at the time, was also struck and a splinter from the stick lodged in her finger.
The teacher took out part of the splinter but the rest stayed behind and the wound became septic after two weeks. A doctor had to remove the rest of the splinter after a serious infection set in. The wound had complications as her muscle movements were affected.
It caused the child, then a gr. 3 learner, to suffer pain and suffering, injury to her dignity, humiliation and discomfort.
Eben Smit from Smit and Maree Attorneys appeared on behalf of the girl.
On Friday in the Polokwane high court, judge Frans Kgomo ruled that the teacher had to be held accountable and must accept responsibility for the assault by one learner on another learner in the school when the teacher was present. He awarded the learner R191 750 in damages. The teacher’s denial that she gave the co-learner instructions to hit the child and her affidavit that she saw and heard nothing was rejected by the court.
Kgomo further ruled that corporal punishment could and would not be tolerated, and every learner in the country had the Constitutional right to be protected from corporal punishment and to get a proper education without being harassed at school.
The education department was instructed to pay the amount at a rate of 15,5% interest per annum from the date of judgment to the date of payment. The department was also ordered to pay the costs of the legal action.
Education spokesperson, Paena Galane said the judgment would be studied and only then would the decision be taken regarding steps to be taken against the educator.
• Article 17 (1) (d) and (f) of the Employment of Educators Act prohibits any corporal punishment to be meted out to a learner by a teacher or if an educator causes a learner or student to perform any of the acts as mentioned in article 17. The Act is clear: an educator must be dismissed if he or she is found guilty of “serious misconduct” as described in Article 17 (a) to (f) and the employer must institute disciplinary proceedings in accordance with the disciplinary code and procedures as provided for.
