Teacher in Standerton allegedly beats learners
According to Pastor Themba Tshabalala, this teacher is in an authority position.
A teacher in Standerton could be in hot water after she allegedly beat learners and showed disrespect towards the public when they arrived at her office to lodge complaints.
According to Pastor Themba Tshabalala, this teacher in an authority position, has shown parents the door on several occasions when they wanted to find out why their children were being beaten at school.
Tshabalala alleged that his grandchild was beaten once at Madi Combined School.
“I went to the school to find out why she is behaving in such a manner,” he said.
“She did not show remorse, instead, she resorted to calling my grandchild a useless thing.”
Although corporal punishment is a thing of the past in South African law, recent data published by Statistics South Africa indicated that this was not the reality at 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 learners.
The Children Exposed to Maltreatment report published in 2021, 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.
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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%).
Tshabalala stated that some parents have reported the teacher to several bodies but no measures have been put into place and their cries fell on deaf ears.
“Do you expect to get justice in a run-down municipality like ours?” Tshabalala asked.
“People have been complaining for years and some died without their complaints being attended to.
“All we have is just empty promises. That is why I asked the Standerton Advertiser to step in as we have tried several times to get this issue mitigated.”
According to him, the number of learners attending Madi seems to be declining.
He also said the school produced many professionals in Standerton and they have no choice, but to watch it collapse.
The man of the cloth added that the Mpumalanga Department of Education must ensure that no more corporal punishment is carried out at the school.
Another community member, Mongezi Nkosi told the Advertiser the school has not been doing well for a while.
“Many learners are dropping out and we daily see it. Only a handful remain at Madi Combined School.”
He added that school management needs to improve and quality education is passed from a teacher to a learner in a good and friendly environment.
The newspaper sent questions to Jasper Zwane, provincial spokesperson of the Department of Education, on August 23.
No feedback was received at the time of going to press.
