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I can’t really stop thinking about what happened few weeks ago in one of the schools in Mpumalanga, Emjindini to be precise.
The learners, in a violence protest, attacked the principal and were ready to destroy anything that came their way. In a bid to quell this pandemonium, soldiers (referred to as Ama-beret) were brought in from nowhere and went brutal on the kids. Many of the learners were beaten to a pulp. In another scenario some of these soldiers went into the school and any learner found with dangerous weapons were mercilessly assaulted. The unbelievable part of this is that the information had it that parents, themselves, brought the soldiers to intervene since the school authority was unable to instill discipline in the learners.
It is true that the Constitution of South Africa rules against corporal punishment. Section 10 of the South African Schools Act (SASA) prohibits the administration of corporal punishment to all learners. Unfortunately many schools are still dishing out corporal punishment to their learners. The irony of this is that many learners unruly behaviour in these schools are better curtailed than schools where there is no corporal punishment.
I am not, in any way, advocating corporal punishment but this is the stark reality especially in black rural schools. It is obvious that legislation on corporal punishment has not been very effective because the law has not been able to provide effective alternative punishment that teachers can adopt to make their jobs easier. A rural school teacher who travels 150 km every day with a communal transport will definitely find it difficult to implement detention, cleaning or extra work as forms of punishment after school hours except enabling systems and structures are put in place to make it possible.
A teacher once said if corporal punishment is not administered on these learners, the teachers will end up being corporally punished by the same learners. Some of these learners come to school being drunk and many of the schools are surrounded by taverns and liquor stores. If the state fails to stop individual businesses from selling alcohol and cigarettes to school kids then I don’t think it can stop corporal punishment in all the schools. Many parents, as a result, have supported corporal punishment and believe me; they have the blessing of their respective community police.
This error has to be corrected. Never must there be any circumstances where we bring in soldiers that are actually trained to kill to come and subdue violence in our schools, never!
