The topic hotly discussed in every staffroom at length last week was the unnecessary death of Gadimang Mokolobate, a new young teacher, who was stabbed [allegedly] by a pupil.
Outrage is one of the emotions this type of news invokes – that this noble profession, the mother of all others, has not been held sacred by society.
That teachers, already dealing with most of the symptoms of the current socio-economic, government-dependent generation, go to school with a small sense of fear?
Especially in the high schools, video footage of these incidents is all over social media.
Disappointment at the fact that neither the government nor the unions seem to be taking this looming crisis as seriously as the teachers are.
We hear that the basic education departments and SAPS are going to “talk”.
We hear that Sadtu is “threatening”, and Naptosa has “expressed their outrage” at this incident and sent an email suggesting that the third term is full already and most teachers would not join any action for fear of going without a day’s pay!
Is this what SA and its people think of our teachers?
That parents – the primary caregivers, first teachers, role models – would “support” the wrong doings of their children, for fear of being the topic of gossip?
The parents of our most vulnerable children are living on government grants – uneducated, unemployed, uninterested and unhappy, themselves failed by the system.
This lack of interest in the future of their children is obvious in the disdain they show the educational professionals.
The end of each school year is peppered with parents who demand that their child be promoted – sometimes not even knowing the teacher’s name, despite the child being in his or her class all year.
The unions, the supposed security net for our teachers, concern themselves with little of the actual service conditions and more with the conditions of service.
When class sizes started increasing gradually in 2010, there was silence – in 2018, the national teacher to pupil ratio is 1:45 in the foundation phase and still silence.
When a teacher can’t use a toilet at school, because the cistern has been smashed or the door is missing, the most basic need is not being met, where are the protests then?
When the resources are so inadequate that not every child has a chair to sit on, or a book to work in, or a whole pencil – silence from those who should be our voices.
When a teacher is harmed, physically and psychologically, a message of sympathy and regret, but no plan to prevent future incidents – and in the silence and apathy, this behaviour is condoned.
Somehow, something needs to be done – before there is a mass exodus of teachers to other countries, who can promise a safer workspace, a better salary and more respect than they are currently being given.
There is a sense of unease and vulnerability among the ranks of our teachers, and the bitter taste of disappointment in a government that doesn’t seem to care less about them.
We need to ask ourselves, where it will end?
What price will our country pay because we neglected our teachers and failed to instil respect into our children?
I fear that the future of our children is under siege.
Angi Jones, educational activist
Riebeeck East