THE Supreme Court of Appeal has ruled against the sanction handed down by the South African Council for Educators (Sace) to teachers who were found guilty of corporal punishment.
The court ruled that the sanction, marred as being "lenient", should be revisited. This after the teachers were fined R15 000 of which R5 000 was suspended and their names struck off the teachers' roll, suspended for 10 years, allowing them to return to the classroom.
In 2019, two teachers were reported to the Sace for serious assault on pupils.
In the first incident, a grade 2 pupil was allegedly hit on the head with a PVC pipe, while in the second incident, a grade 5 pupil suffered a lasting ear bleed, leading to repeating a grade. This after a teacher allegedly hit her on the cheek and head.
When the matter was brought forward, Section27 noted how both teachers received lenient sanctions from the teachers' council, which were based on its internal policy called the “Mandatory Sanctions Policy”.
As a result, the Public Interest Law Centre approached the Supreme Court of Appeal in a bid to ensure the two teachers are given fresh hearings by partly appealing a judgment by the North Gauteng High Court.
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This proved successful as the Supreme Court granted the appeal, urging the Sace's decisions and sanctions in respect of the two teachers be sent back to the Sace for reconsideration.
According to the court, this is to comply with its constitutional obligations to act in the best interests of pupils and consider appropriate rehabilitative sanctions to the two teachers.
Both Section27 and the Centre for Child Law (CCL) welcomed the judgment and further said they are determined to ensure the systems meant to protect pupils from violence in schools and the institutions established to protect them work effectively.
Section27 spokeswoman Pearl Nicodemus said the Supreme Court emphasised that Sace can't "hand down cookie-cutter" sentences but must allow for flexibility in its sentencing policy.
At the same time, they have a duty to assess the impact of the actions of educators on the children.
CCL spokesman Stanley Malematja said the judgment marks victory for the centre and the two families and the efforts by institutions to effectively prevent the scourge of corporal punishment in our schools.
