Dear Parents
This letter was recently sent out by the principal of one of our local schools. The letter was subsequently shared on various media platforms. I took the liberty of circulating the letter to some of the principals I know and asked them for their feedback. This is what some had to say:
“I sent out similarly worded letters to my parents. Sadly I did not have any response from any of the parents. Personally, I feel unruly children must be removed from classes so those who want to learn are not deprived of their education. Principals, parents and the broader community must unite to deal with students who disrupt and act with disrespect towards educators. Principals and educators deal with learners with such behaviour on a daily bases and must protect teachers against the disruptive behaviour of certain students. IS THIS WHAT TEACHING AS A PROFESSION HAS COME TO? I respect and admire educators who leave the profession and go into a job or profession where they are protected by their employers” I applaud the principal for his bold stand.”
“I would like to extend an invitation to the circuit managers, subject advisers, directors, regional directors to come to schools and see and experience what we deal with on a daily basis. As educators, we are very quickly reprimanded (sometimes even get kicked out of our jobs and professions) when we try and teach these learners a bit of respect. I believe that the policies are ill-designed and are destroying our schools and the moral of good educators. I would, if I could, dismiss disrespectful and disruptive learners immediately”.
“Municipal workers (vullisverwyderaars) enjoy much better working conditions than educators. They are protected in their workplace. As educators, we are left to our own devices to deal with the rudeness, aggressiveness and sometimes direct abuse behaviour of the learners. Even principals cannot protect us. Something must be done very soon. The situation cannot be tolerated. The WCED MUST DO SOMETHING TO PROTECT THE EDUCATORS AND PRINCIPALS. We are being abused on a daily basis!
As an individual who spends most of their time at schools either doing voluntary work or trying to assist learners, I have to agree with the comments raised by these principals. Discipline at schools is out of control, not just at our high schools, but even at our primary school learners share the same problems. Surely as parents, it is our duty to get involved to assist with these issues at school.
How can we as parents assist the schools?
We invite you to send us your comments, suggestions and ideas on how our parents can help our dear principals and educators to remedy these problems that are fast growing to epidemic proportions.
