In a significant move to safeguard learners, the Department of Basic Education is spearheading a nationwide initiative to vet all educators and student teachers against the National Register for Sex Offenders, with the government now covering the cost for aspiring teachers.
The push aims to systematically rid schools of sexual predators by ensuring no individual with a relevant criminal record enters the teaching profession. To date, just over 78,000 of the more than 405,000 teachers already employed in public schools have been vetted.
Sandile Ntshalintshali, Legal Manager for the South African Council for Educators (SACE), elaborated on the process in a recent interview, highlighting a proactive approach with student teachers. He explained that while any employer has the prerogative to vet staff working with children, the Department of Basic Education has taken the “drastic” step of funding the vetting for student teachers, who are typically unemployed.
“This is purely to ensure that at the end of the production of educators, we admit educators who are not in the register,” Ntshalintshali stated. “It’s an initiative that we applaud.”
This departmental effort runs parallel to a mandatory requirement SACE introduced in 2019. According to Ntshalintshali, all student teachers applying for registration with the regulatory body must submit a police clearance certificate. SACE then forwards these applications to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to check them against both the National Register for Sex Offenders and the Child Protection Register.
“We are doing that religiously from the first-year students,” Ntshalintshali said. “We are definitely sure that as they are unleashed to the mainstream for employment… we are sure that our kids are in the safe hands of these potential fit-to-practice teachers.”
The vetting forms part of a broader ethical framework governing the profession. Ntshalintshali confirmed that SACE has a Code of Professional Ethics for both student teachers and qualified educators, which mandates appropriate behaviour “24/7, 365.”
Addressing the apparent discrepancy in the vetting numbers for the existing teaching force, Ntshalintshali clarified that the 405,000 figure represents educators who have long been in the system, some of whom were employed even before the establishment of the National Sex Offenders Register. This has created a situation where not all current teachers have been vetted.
In contrast, he affirmed that SACE’s data shows that effectively every student teacher who has applied for registration since January 2019 has been vetted through its systems, creating a safer pipeline of new educators entering public schools.
