Shelinia Schoeman: 21802874Discipline in South African Schools
Ask any teacher whether or not not they feel “in control” of their charges within the setting of the school and you are unlikely to get an uncertain“yes” for an answer. Many of them will openly admit that coping with indiscipline in schools is one of the foremost challenges of the teaching profession. The offences are many and varied and can range from minor classroom or playground altercations to incidents of violence that require the intervention of the police.
But the challenges associated with maintaining discipline often go well beyond isolated incidents of aggression. There have been re-ports of violent gangs, sexual activity on school premises and in at least a handful of cases, the sale of drugs in schools.
If these occurrences are hardly unique to the local school system, many teachers admit that they feel “intimidated” and “fearful,” their feelings of insecurity arising in many cases out of a concern that the standard of discipline in our schools is on a continual downward spiral.
