The Eastern Cape provincial Department of Education has expressed concerns about the lack of compliance with the requirement to vet teachers and non-teaching staff for possible sexual offences against children.
Acting head of department Sharon Maasdorp last month indicated that vetting forms were sent to all special schools including public ordinary schools in the province’s 12 education districts, for them to complete and return to the head office’s security management section in Zwelitsha, Qonce (formerly King William's Town).
She complained that only one district complied with her request.
”In terms of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act 13 of 2021, persons previously convicted of sexual offences against children and persons with mental disabilities are prohibited from working or being placed in circumstances where they have access to vulnerable persons,” Maasdorp stated.
She said her department had a responsibility to report on a monthly basis to the Departments of Basic Education and Justice on the matter.
Employers of people working with children are required to immediately terminate the employment of an employee who fails to disclose a conviction of a sexual offence against a child or a person who is mentally disabled or is alleged to have committed a sexual offence against a child or a person who is mentally disabled and who has been dealt with in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act.
In addition, an employer must take reasonable steps to prevent an employee whose particulars are recorded in the justice department’s national register of sexual offenders from continuing to gain access to a child or a person who is mentally disabled person who is vulnerable, in the course of his or her employment.
This includes, if reasonably possible or practicable, to transfer such person from the position occupied by him or her to another post or position, provided that if any such steps to be taken will not ensure the safety of a child or a person who is mentally disabled person who is vulnerable, the employment relationship, the use of services or access, as the case may be, must be terminated immediately.
In the 2022/23 financial year, the SA Council for Educators (Sace) professionally registered 3 862 early childhood development practitioners and 15 922 student teachers and all went through the screening and vetting process through the SA Police Services’ criminal record database and the national register of sexual offenders.
During the same period, Sace received a total of 734 cases and investigated 254 of misconduct against educators, with the majority of them being for the assault of learners followed by sexual misconduct and others assault of colleagues.
The council expressed its worries that these trends are worrying and that the question to be asked is why there is still so much physical abuse, be it that of learners and/ or colleagues.
According to Sace, 163 of the 734 cases related to sexual harassment of a learner including failure to report rape, rape of a learner, sexual assault and impregnating a learner.
A total of 31 educators have been removed from the roll indefinitely and some of their names being entered into the register of persons declared unfit to work with children, which held by the Department of Social Development, including those found guilty of serious offences such as sexual misconduct – rape, impregnating a learner and sexual relations with learners broadly, among others.
Sunday Independent