We need to ensure that the Department of Basic Education properly trains educators on how to manage class discipline without resorting to corporal punishment.
The Talis survey focused on issues such as vandalism, violence and bullying which happens frequently in South Africa and infrequent in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, countries. The study felt short when it comes to arson because just two days after the release of the report a school was burnt down.
This would be an outlier in the report. Most countries have never experienced members of society burning schools not even in the rest of Africa. Chairperson, burning of a school is unheard of, unless you live in a war-torn country. So, if I may ask: Who do we blame? It is not the 1976 learners who protested against Afrikaans because they never burnt any school. It is not the 1988 learners, but it is the learners from this very system who actually go out and burn our schools. This is an upfront, it is criminal and it should be treated as such. [Time expired.] [Applause.]