Growing concerns about the number of unreported sexual misconduct cases against teachers - Naptosa

Cape Town - The National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) says there are growing concerns about the number of unreported sexual misconduct cases against teachers in schools.

This comes after the Basic Education Department said that the number has been rising from 2019 to date, with about 191 cases reported by the South African Council of Educators (SACE) while only 23 disciplinary proceedings were instituted last year.

Speaking to Newzroom Afrika, Naptosa executive director Basil Manuel said it seemed as though the country was nowhere near ridding schools of the abuse of this nature of pupils perpetrated by teachers who for the eight hours of schooling were their guardians.

“It is shocking and a tragedy that we have seen such a massive increase,” said Mauel. “However, I think we need to put a bit of perspective onto it, and there is no way of telling what informs the increase. Is it really an increase in the number of incidents or is it better reporting?

“We know that more children are now more alert on social media and these things get reported easier. We know that parents are less likely to be bribed even though that still happens and they are more likely to stand for their children.

“So it could be better reporting but it doesn’t matter what really, it’s still a tragedy to see such a massive increase and then of course in conjunction with the increase, a far less effective follow-up in terms of bringing these miscreants to book, that is where the problem lies,” Manuel said.

Manuel said Naptosa was also fully aware that the majority of these cases had not been reported and perpetrators tended to get away with them.

“Technically, we have to accept that needs to be followed and that not everybody that is accused is necessarily guilty. Secondly, investigations will reveal whether there is a case to be made,” he said.

Manuel said that the breakdown of the statistics was very concerning for Naptosa and it was something that they were looking at - on how it could be tackled, because most of these perpetrators tended to get away with these cases.

"There seems to be a huge discrepancy in the number of cases that have been reported, and charges that have been laid,“ Manuel said.

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