SUBSTITUTE TEACHER FIRED
SA Council for Educators investigates racist incident at Pretoria college
The South African Council for Educators is investigating allegations against a substitute teacher, who was fired after a racist incident at Crawford International College.
The body that regulates the teaching profession is investigating racism allegations against a former Grade 8 teacher at Crawford International College after a video went viral showing her writing offensive words on a classroom whiteboard.
The incident happened at the college’s Pretoria campus on 24 July.
Shortly after the incident, the college announced that the teacher, who had been at the school for a week to stand in for a permanent teacher who was on sick leave, was dismissed with immediate effect and reported to the South African Council for Educators (Sace).
On Friday, Sace spokesperson Risuna Nkuna said that they were conducting an investigation after a report was submitted by the school.
“Remember, allegations are subject to investigations. At this stage, we are investigating the matter. [When] we are done with the investigation, we will communicate publicly what was the outcome of the case,” Nkuna said.
This followed a meeting between the college and a team from the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) in Gauteng on Friday.
The SAHRC has initiated an investigation aimed at determining the measures put in place by the school to assist learners and the school community affected by the incident.
The probe, the SAHRC said, would also prevent the recurrence of racist incidents.
Daily Maverick sent specific questions to the school and the SAHRC, but rather than responding, they issued a joint statement on Friday.
The statement said that in the video, learners could be heard complaining about the conduct of the teacher.
At the meeting, the statement said, the SAHRC was advised that the school had immediately condemned the teacher’s conduct and offered an unreserved apology to learners, parents, the greater schooling community, and the rest of the country for the hurt caused.
The school also contacted the Gauteng Department of Basic Education and MEC Matome Chiloane to address the matter.
The department also released a statement detailing actions taken and the cooperation provided by the school.
At the meeting, it was agreed that:
- The SAHRC will help to conduct workshops at the school on equality, in addition to the school’s existing Respect Diversity Inclusion programme.
- The SAHRC will provide the college with access to its teaching toolkits for use in the school’s diversity programme.
- The SAHRC will offer mediation and negotiation services to the school and its immediate stakeholders if required. DM
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It’s rather disgusting that DM does not even attempt to ask the accused teacher for their side of the story, so much for balanced journalism. School pupils are horrible little ingrates will do anything to get their way and are likely to video something out of context which is why it is imperative to ask the accused teacher for their perspective.