In one of the most shocking incidents in the teaching profession in recent times, an educator based at eMachakwini Primary School on the North Coast of KwaZulu-Natal allegedly forced a five-year-old boy to drink his own urine.
Christi Naudé, spokesperson for the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education, says the child apparently urinated in a bucket and his teacher allegedly told him to choose between having his penis chopped off or drinking his urine. The boy, who suffers from asthma, chose to drink the urine.
The stress caused him to suffer an asthma attack later, and his parents took him to the doctor. It was here that they learnt the cause of the attack. His parents then laid a charge at Msane police station.
Naudé said that KwaZulu-Natal education MEC Ina Cronjé was ‘shocked, horrified and furious” about the ‘callous and inhumane” behaviour of the educator. ‘Schools should be safe havens for our children, where they are nurtured and protected,” said Cronjé. ‘A school should be a caring place and discipline must be exercised within a caring environment and in a spirit of respect for the dignity and rights of a child.”
The teacher has been summarily suspended pending a disciplinary hearing, which must take place in 30 days. This follows a report by the principal and the superintendent education manager who verified the incident.
A counsellor from the department’s psychological-service team is due to give counselling to the boy and his family.
Meanwhile, a joint visit by Cronjé and Minister of Education Naledi Pandor once again highlighted some of the more pressing problems, especially in rural schools.
For example, at Mcya Primary, pupils and teachers greeted them with placards reading, ‘We need classrooms”. This elicited a positive response from Cronjé, who committed her department to building four classrooms at the school within two months.
And during an imbizo at Gamalakhe further education and training (FET) college, the duo listened to a catalogue of complaints and queries ranging from requests for laboratories, backlog in teacher payment, temporary FET lecturer posts and corruption in the department to theft and problems with feeding schemes.