The South African Council for Educators (SACE) has described the significant increase of sexual harassment by educators against learners in public schools as wickedness in the education system, which has tarnished the image of the profession.
SACE CEO Ella Mokgalane told Parliament that about 93 cases of sexual harassment were received in 2019.
She says 40 of those cases were finalised and the guilty teachers were expelled.
“The issue really about sexually harassment is a wicked problem in the system. It cannot be solved by SACE alone. It’s something that needs communities. It’s something that needs teachers and everybody. And if you check in our research that we have done on the factors that enhance sexual harassment, we discovered that it’s largely men who have double standards and double lives. And it’s also men with double personalities and they portrayed that to the children,” says Mokgalane.
