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Chapter 14 - School Government

Discipline in schools

According to the SA Schools Act a governing body of a public school must draft and adopt a Code of Conduct for the learners. This needs to follow a consultative process with learners, parents and educators of the school.

This Code of Conduct must include the types of behaviours that will be punished, the types of punishments that will be given for different forms of misbehaviour, policies on making the school a safe place, bullying and drugs as well as grievance procedures for learners and parents if they want to take up a matter against another learner or the school, and disciplinary procedures that the school will follow if it plans to discipline a learner.

Kinds of punishment

• Corporal punishment - Corporal punishment,  such as canings or hidings, is banned in schools because Section 12 of the Constitution says no one should be punished or treated in a cruel or degrading way. A person who is found guilty of using corporal punishment can be charged with assault. The kinds of punishments that schools can use include a demerit system, detention, picking up rubbish on the playing field and so on. Degrading punishments like cleaning toilets is not allowed.
• Suspending a learner from school - For serious offences that school may suspend a learner for up to one week from school. This can only happen once there has been a fair hearing where the learner has had a chance to put his or her side of the story.
• Expelling a learner from school - If a school feels that the offence which the learner has committed is so serious that he or she should be expelled from the school, the learner can be suspended from the school while the provincial Head of Department decides whether or not to expel the learner. Only the provincial Head of Department can expel a learner from a school. The principal cannot make that decision. If a learner is expelled he or she can appeal against the Head of Department’s decision to the provincial MEC of education. The Head of Department has to make arrangements to place an expelled learner in another public school.

Taking disciplinary action against a learner

Where a learner has been told to appear in a disciplinary hearing for any misconduct identified in the Code of Conduct, he or she must be accompanied by a parent or person designated by the parent at the disciplinary proceedings, unless the SGB can give good reasons for continuing without the parent.

Complaints of sexual harassment or abuse

If a learner complains that he or she has been sexually harassed or abused in any way the following action should be taken. Either the learner and/or the guardian may lay an official complaint with the school management through an interview and in writing. As gender discrimination and sexual harassment and violence are against the law, the school management is obliged to follow prescribed legal procedures when dealing with grievances of this nature.

Language policy in schools

The goals of the language policy of the Department of Education are to:   

• undo the neglect of the historically disadvantaged languages in school education
• promote full participation in society and the economy through equal and meaningful access to education
• follow the language policy that most supports general growth amongst learners
• avoid the disadvantages that result from different kinds of mismatches between home languages and languages of learning and teaching.

The policy addresses two aspects: language as a subject, and the language of learning and teaching.

Individual rights in relation to language are protected as follows:

1. The learner must choose the language of teaching when applying for admission to a particular school.
2. Where a school uses the language of learning and teaching that has been chosen by the learner, and where there is a place available in the relevant grade, the school must admit the learner.
3. If there is no school in a school district that offers the preferred language of the learner then  the learner can request the provincial education department to make provision to be taught in his or her chosen language. The provincial education department must make copies of the request available to all schools in the relevant school district. The language policy states that it should be possible to provide education in a particular language of learning and teaching if at least 40 learners in Grades 1 to 6 or 35 learners in Grades 7 to 12 in a particular Grade request it in a particular school.

The governing body of the school must say how the school will promote multilingualism (different languages) in the school. This might include having more than one language of learning and teaching, offering additional language subjects, or other language programmes.