Corporal punishment still used in South African schools – Stats SA

Statistics South Africa has released the 2021 Children exposed to maltreatment report, which indicates that corporal punishment in South African schools is still used as a form of discipline.

According to Stats SA, the report further shows that the most common form of violence experienced by children was corporal punishment by teachers, even though corporal punishment was abolished in South African schools in 1997.

“Of the one million 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%).”

The reports states that six in 10 children who experienced corporal punishment by teachers at school in 2019 lived in rural areas and seven in 10 children who experienced physical violence by teachers in 2019 were from urban areas.

“KwaZulu-Natal had the highest percentage of children who experienced violence at school (35.1%), followed by [the] Eastern Cape (18.1%), Gauteng (11.8%) and [the] North West (10.2%).”