Education
In relation to the Minister of Basic Education’s recently reporting that only 19% of South Africa’s teachers have been vetted against the National Register for Sex Offenders:
(a) How many (i) officials and (ii) educators – including both office-based and school-based staff in the province – have been vetted against the National Register for Sex Offenders, (b) what (i) systems and (ii) measures are currently in place to ensure ongoing compliance with the vetting requirements for both new and existing staff, (c)(i) what are the timeline and implementation plan for achieving the full vetting of all educators and relevant personnel in the province and (ii) how will his Department monitor the progress and ensure transparent public reporting and (d) what additional support is required from other stakeholders, such as the national Department of Basic Education, to accelerate the vetting process and to close any systemic gaps?
My department has informed me of the following:
It is important to note that all staff are vetted. The process of checking against the National Register of Sex Offenders (NSRO) is a lengthy administrative process, which is done in addition to vetting, not in place of it.
In addition to the NRSO vetting, the WCED has vetting procedures in place during the recruitment process. This includes verification of their Identity Document, criminal profile and qualifications. They are also vetted against the National Child Protection Register from the Department of Social Development.
The WCED checks the government’s employee records system, Persal, to establish whether a potential employee who worked previously for government was ever convicted of an offence, including sexual offences.
In terms of educators, registration with the South African Council for Educators (SACE) is a requirement for appointment into a teaching position. Newly qualified educators are also vetted when they register for their SACE certificate.
(a) Educators: 10 245
Support staff – 3 019
Administrative staff – 768
Most schools have complied with the process, however, some documents have been returned to schools to ensure that they are fully compliant to the expectations set by the Department of Justice.
(b) In addition to the individual application forms that are to be completed by the staff member, the South African Police Service needs to provide a Police Clearance Certificate. This is a timeous process, taking anything between one to four months to be provided.
The individual application forms and the clearance certificate are then submitted to the WCED to verify whether all the relevant documents are compliant per the vetting application requirements from the Department of Justice, before it is submitted to the Provincial Office of the Department of Justice.
(c)-(d) The Department of Justice is the custodian of the process to provide the final certificate against the NRSO.
All provincial education departments and provincial offices of the Department of Justice provide monthly feedback reports on the progress made to a joint meeting of the Departments of Basic Education and Department of Justice.
This is an extremely time consuming and resource demanding process. In some cases, officials did complete their applications, but delays are caused due to information missing or errors on the application (e.g. it is not in the format prescribed or there is a signature missing). The application is then returned to schools. Regular follow up meetings and monitoring is undertaken via District Offices and directly with schools.
Full cooperation from the South African Police Services and the Department of Justice is critical to improving this process.
