SCHOOLS in the country have turned into battlefields where adults have lost control and where their authority is challenged at every turn.
“The moment teachers were robbed of their right to instil discipline, was when it all went wrong, and with the current generation, it will only get worse.”
This is the overwhelming opinion of stakeholders and social media users as they watch with horror, footage captured in schools and classrooms of fist fights, chair throwing and uncontrolled verbal exchanges between teachers and pupils.
“Back in the day when rules were in place, teachers had the upper hand and they were authorised to shape the mind of their charges and keep them in in check,” said teacher Samkelo Shabangu, after the latest viral incident of a teacher and his pupils caught fighting on camera at a Johannesburg school.
Shabangu, a teacher for 15 years, said the transition from a time when teachers had authority to when they were stripped of it, had been painful.
He said this was not about corporal punishment, but a shift in the rights from one area of focus to the other. “Teachers had authority, they had power, yes, they were scary, but this, if one remembers correctly, taught young people to respect their elders,” he told the Sunday Independent.
Former high school teacher, Lindiwe Mabelane, said when corporal punishment was taken off the table, so was the level of who was in charge in class.
Recalling her teaching stint at a township school in the North West, she said: “There we had an older than normal group of boys and girls in most classes, who, if they did not recognise that as a teacher they respect you, (it) turned into something ugly.”
She said while the rule to criminalise corporal punishment in itself was not the issue, in its totality it had brought in a shift in command. “Suddenly we were teaching rights over responsibility, drilling numbers into the minds of children and encouraging them to call someone else if they felt threatened….we even taught them to feel threatened when they were being disciplined.”
It was in 1997 when the government introduced the Abolishing of Corporal Punishment Act, banning any form of what was deemed harsh and inhumane discipline in school.
Mabelane said this came with all sorts of undercurrents, including teachers being banned from raising their voice at children who were unruly, to being unable to caution rough play in the playground and children talking during teaching.
“This, you see, filtered back into society and the home, rightly so because so was the rate of reported abuse. The shift of power was sudden - parents could no longer discipline their children because they could report that to us and we, in turn, could report it to social services.
“But it spread like wildfire in the schooling area, where you had groups of children finding that they had power. They became uncontrollable and a force which fed off each other.”
Mabelane said she left teaching when she felt the very fabric was breaking down and a mere request for work to be done - or even a student to put a cell phone away, became challenging.
The lack of discipline, a breakdown of morals, and a generation lacking respect has been blamed for the cases of students and teachers fighting.
Responded to the latest incident, Gauteng Education MEC Matome Chiloane, said he was concerned, and promised that an investigation was being launched. “We take this matter seriously. The safety of everyone on the premises of schools remains our utmost priority. However, such ill-discipline will not be tolerated. Schools are for development, not any other nefarious deeds. As such, we are investigating the circumstances surrounding this incident and we will act decisively on our findings.”
But the backlash from parents and others in society has been massive, with many blaming the department of targeting the adult in such situations.
A parent and School Governing Body (SGB) member, said: “They will call the authorities on any intervention on the part of the teacher, but will be more understanding and offer counselling for the child.”
The National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) said they hoped the department would consider all factors leading up to the recent incident.
Executive Director, Basil Manuel, said the footage indicated the extent of the breakdown of discipline in schools.
"It is really unfortunate that this particular teacher lost their cool because at the end of the day, they will carry the consequences for that and the learner will probably be back in class tomorrow," he said.
Manuel said extreme provocation could be seen in the footage, and parents could be expected to accuse the schools of not having discipline when they did not try to assist in enforcing discipline.
Others chipped in on social media and blamed the homes from where the children came from, saying if the child lacked discipline at home, they carried it into school, and this, they added, was the perfect recipe for the criminality which was so rampant in society.
ntando.makhubu@inl.co.za