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The Mercury reports that the employment of 200,000 new teaching assistants and 100,000 general assistants at schools across the country has raised concerns about the safety of pupils because of inadequate vetting and shortcomings in the sexual offenders register.
Education departments already have to deal with cases of sexual misconduct on the part of teachers, with the SA Council for Educators (SACE) indicating in its annual report that it received 92 sexual-related complaints in 2019/20. SACE spokesperson Thembinkosi Ndhlovu advised that the council had decided to demand that each applicant seeking to register with SACE should submit a police clearance certificate that was not older than six months. SACE also submits an applicant’s details to the Department of Justice for vetting against the National Register for Sexual Offenders (NRSO). But, Lucy Jamieson of UCT’s Children’s Institute said the national child protection register and the National Register for Sex Offenders were incomplete and did not work properly. Jamieson also said any system of doing background checks was not sufficient because the vast majority of people who have committed offences against women and children were not caught or convicted. “What we would like to see is that the principals are actually looking at the staff’s history and check the teachers' history thoroughly,” she said. Elijah Mhlanga of the Department of Basic Education said the new teachers they planned to employ would be required to provide clearance documents. He added: “Child molesters can be found anywhere, but in the case of this programme, the department has done the basic vetting.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Karen Singh and Marvin Charles at The Mercury
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page