EC EDUCATION department’s superintendent general (SG) has expressed disgust at the alleged utterances of a Grahamstown school teacher who bragged in social media about sleeping with grade 11 girls in his school.
“The department is embarrassed by this act of abdicating moral responsibility, instead opting to engage in sexual relationship with learners who look upon educators in loco parentis rather than sexual partners.” He said thus far the department had liaised with the district office in Grahamstown to attend to the matter as it “amounts to serious misconduct according to law”.
“I condemn in the strongest terms this predatory conduct by this educator as it embarrasses and taints the teaching profession. As such I have instituted an immediate investigation on the said allegations. Our intervention on this matter is based on his social media comments, specifically his Facebook page,” Kojana said.
He said he had asked the departmental legal section to investigate the legal ramifications of the alleged conduct of the teacher. The department’s immediate response would be based on the preliminary reports provided by the labour relations directorate. This investigation, Kojana said, will be guided by the Employment of Educator’s Act of 1998.
Section 17 of the act deals with serious act of misconduct and violations and sexual relations. “I want to send a stern warning to all those educators who see sexual partners in our (pupils) as this will lead to them losing their jobs. We are working with the South African Council for Educators (SACE) to ensure that all those found guilty of these offences are deregistered as educators and never work with children in South Africa again”.
