BTU halts corporal punisment
Larona Makhaiza | Monday April 3, 2023 06:00
This emerged at the BTU media briefing and stakeholder engagement on the thorny issue of corporal punishment. On Monday, the BTU held a media briefing, where they engaged other stakeholders about issues such as corporal punishment.
The BTU secretary-general, Agang Gabana revealed that they have teachers that are on the wrong side law and some are appearing before the court for administering corporal punishment.
“We currently have five teachers that are before the courts of law and this is something that is really not common because administering corporal punishment has always been there,” Gabana said.
On what has been going on with the corporal punishment fracas, Gabana said the issue has left the union with no choice but to stop administering corporal punishment in schools.
“We as BTU, we have decided that our members should stop the use of corporal punishment as we can all see that currently corporal punishment is landing teachers in trouble with the law,” Gabana revealed. Gabana further stated that the decision to stop administering corporal punishment is not solely based on any form of truth that what they are doing is wrong but rather it is solely for purposes of protecting themselves. “Teachers are currently being victimised for applying corporal punishment on students and this is putting the teachers’ jobs at risk.
It is not assisting as it puts our jobs at risk and we are not victimized. Our members should not use corporal punishment and protect their jobs,” elaborated the secretary-general. Still on the matter, he revealed that although they have decided against administering corporal punishment, the practice is not against the law.
“In terms of the national act, it shows that corporal punishment is still allowed and the teachers are well within their power to use corporal punishment,” Gabana explained.
Asked what they intend on doing now that they have put corporal punishment on a halt, Gabana said they will be exploring other means of punishing students for misbehaving. “A school should be a place of learning, so let us teach our students respect,” he said. Gabana further implored government to prioritise teacher safety at schools so that teachers are protected from the unruly students.