The South African Council for Educators (SACE) has struck the names of 11 teachers off the roll during the past three months, in most cases because of sexual misconduct, SACE chairman Glenn Abrahams said on Wednesday.
Another eight disciplinary hearings for alleged sexual
misconduct were scheduled for the next month, he told reporters in Centurion at a function to launch a handbook on SACE’s Code of Professional Ethics.
”If a teacher’s name is struck off the roll, it means that they can’t practice anywhere in the country. That includes independent schools.”
SACE might recommend that such a person was not a suitable candidate to teach anywhere in the world, Abrahams said.
The deregistration was indefinite, but a person could approach the council after some time to try and convince it that he or she had rehabilitated sufficiently and should be allowed back into the profession.
The council did not publish the names of those struck off the roll as this was a delicate constitutional matter, but could disclose them to the employing authorities, Abrahams said.
He said the council had completed 34 disciplinary hearings in the past three months.
Besides the 11 who lost their registration as teachers, six teachers were given other punishments for various offences.
SACE’s legal adviser, Thabi Kikine, said many of the 34 cases had not been concluded yet because, for instance, the teacher involved did not arrive for the hearing and might never have received the summons.
Abrahams said that after the council received a complaint, it sent a team to investigate. On the basis of the team’s findings it was decided whether or not to set up a tribunal for a hearing.
The council would launch 20 investigations next month. There might be many cases of sexual abuse that were never reported, he said.
”It is important that our communities begin to speak out about abuse.”
Abrahams added that there were cases where teachers were accused falsely.
The majority of the 413 000 educators, including teachers and lecturers, registered with SACE conducted themselves professionally, he said.
”Less than 0,01% of our educators have tarnished the good image of the profession.”
Professor Ben Parker of the Unilever Ethics Centre at the University of Natal was the primary author of the handbook.
He said SACE did not want to be seen just as a disciplinary body, but also as one which strove for the professional development of educators.
About 15 different people helped to write the book, which includes case studies and other contributions by teachers who participated in ethics workshops in all nine provinces.
Deputy director-general of education Duncan Hindle said: ”This is one further initiative in the national notion of moral regeneration.”
Abrahams said SACE and the Education Department, with the help of donor organisations, were devising plans to get copies of the book to every educator, as well as governing bodies and learner representative councils. – Sapa