By EPN Reporter
MBABANE – Teachers who sexually abuse pupils in school will be fired from now onwards.
This is a stern warning that was issued by Minister of Education and Training Owen Nxumalo yesterday. Nxumalo said his ministry was being flooded with reports of teachers suspected to be sexually abusing pupils in various schools across the country.
Nxumalo stated that his ministry would take action, after the teachers had been found to be guilty of committing such acts. Usually, teachers who have been found to have transgressed are tried by the Teaching Service Commission (TSC), which is responsible for hiring and firing teachers, among other responsibilities.
The minister said what was bad was that teachers who were found to have done such acts were simply transferred to other schools. “This time, there will be zero tolerance because they will be fired after having found to be guilty of such acts,” Nxumalo said.
He further mentioned that they would try to speedily try such teachers because in most cases, they were suspended for a long time, with full pay and they stayed in their respective schools where they worked. This was not acceptable, according to the minister, because such matters had to be dealt with speedily so that resources could also be saved.
Nxumalo also mentioned that there were many other forms of corruption that took place in school and within the entire education sector in the country. He said all those matters were already under scrutiny and any professional found to be on the wrong side would be dealt with, decisively.
