BY Obakeng Maje

The School Governing Body of Mafikeng High in its extraordinary meeting held on Thursday 13 December 2012 resolved to concur with the recommendation of the disciplinary panel that a 37 year old female educator be summarily dismissed.

The SGB rejected the letter of resignation dated 10 December 2012 that the educator had submitted to the school management after she was served with summonses dated 5 December 2012 to appear before a disciplinary panel on Tuesday 11 December 2012 to answer to charges of:

• ·         Failure to disclose the progression of the relationship from a professional to a deeper personal level to the principal and or parent of the learner

In our view, the resignation letter submitted by the said educator was an attempt to avoid disciplinary action as it ignored the 1 month notice period that educators employed by the SGB have to serve in terms of their employment contract.

We hold a strong view that any reasonable person would have welcomed the opportunity to clear their name instead of resigning after a disciplinary process had been initiated.

We wish to take this opportunity to express our disappointment that the educator in question betrayed the trust of the school and parent of the learner and conducted herself in a shameful and unbecoming manner and in violation of the South African Council of Educators Code of Professional Ethics.

The audio-visual material that the parent discovered on the cellphone of the learner when she retrieved her children’s cellphones prior the commencement of the examination was overwhelming for us to arrive at the verdict of guilty and the sanction to outrightly dismiss the educator.

Though the parent had lodged the complaint on the 20 October 2012,We had agreed with the parent to hold back disciplinary proceedings so that they did not affect the learner’s performance in the exams and marking of exam scripts by the said educator.

We are confident that together with the parent we have acted in the best interest of the learner as he has managed to pass Grade 10 and will be proceeding to Grade 11 next year.

We view in the strongest terms the betrayal of trust which has also robbed the learner of his childhood, In addition to the psychological counselling that he has been undergoing, we will appeal to the MEC for Education and Training, Louisa Mabe for her department to assist the learner move into a learning environment that will assist him heal.

We wish to comment the parent for her vigilance that led to the discovery of the material that dates back to last year when the learner was 15 years old on the learner’s cellphone .

We appeal to parents to take interest in what is stored on their children’s cellphones and with whom they are chatting on social network platforms such as facebook, Mixit etc.

We wish to commend the South African Police Service Child Protection Unit on the swift arrest of the educator who spend last night in jail and is due to appear  in the Mmabatho Magistrates Court this morning.

We have reason to believe that more than one learner might have been molested by the said educator since she joined the school last year and appeal to past and current learners of our school to come forward  with information that might assist police in their investigations.

Those with information in this regard are advised to contact the investigating officer Warrant Officer Motiki @ 073 183 6892.

For our part, we will share our report with all relevant authorities including the South African Council of Educators, National Association of School Governing Bodies (NASGB), Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (FEDSAS),Governor’s Alliance etc. to ensure that the educator in question is kept as far from learners as possible.

In recognising that the educator in question was not a qualified educator and was therefore not registered with SACE, the SGB has further resolved to take the drastic step to terminate three contracts of educators who are not registered with SACE. Contracts will only be renewed when proof of registration is produced when schools reopen.

The SGB is taking steps to urgently advertise the vacancy that arose as a result of the dismissal of the educator to ensure that there is no class without an educator when schools reopen.

Though we admit that our impeccable reputation has been brought into disrepute by the conduct of the educator who manipulated and took advantage of a minor, we will do everything in our power to reclaim our proud record of serving our community with honour and integrity over the past 80 years.

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