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Cosas clarifies its ‘fire-by-fire’ call to students amidst increasing school violence

Cosas
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Education stakeholders, including unions and learner organisation the Congress of South African Students (Cosas), believe government should come up with a new alternative to corporal punishment.

They were part of the Colloquium on Corporal Punishment conversations held at the University of KwaZulu Natal’s Edgewood Campus, in Pinetown.

Corporal punishment is most often practiced on minors, especially at home and school settings.

Corporal punishment was abolished 21-years ago in schools, however, some educators still use it to punish learners.

Recently, videos have gone viral on social media, showing educators beating up children, in some videos learners are seen attacking educators in full view of other learners.

In July,  Cosas called on learners in South African schools to retaliate when faced with abuse from teachers.

Member of the Cosas National Executive Committee, Mthokozisi Mweli, says, “When we came up with ‘fire with fire”, we said we need to have a form of retaliation. To some learners it came in a wrong context. That’s why we are saying there has been transformers into saying that let us fight every decision by the book; let us still fight whatever the teachers are doing which is wrong. What we are saying with ‘fire with fire’ … we are saying we should not sit down and wait for them to come to us. Whatever wrong they are doing, let us fight it back, but by book and by law and by the code of conduct, school’s act.”

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