By Thapelo Molefe
KwaZulu-Natal has recorded the highest rate of corporal punishment by teachers in South Africa, with 21.1% of learners in the province reporting that they were subjected to physical punishment at school in 2024.
The figure is contained in the Department of Basic Education’s General Household Survey 2024: Focus on Schooling report, based on Statistics South Africa’s General Household Survey, which was released in August.
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The rate is more than three times the national rate of 6.9%.
KwaZulu-Natal was followed by the Eastern Cape, where 11.3% of learners reported experiencing corporal punishment by a teacher. The Free State and North West recorded rates of 5.3% and 5.4%, respectively.
The department said corporal punishment by teachers remained the most commonly reported form of violence experienced by learners in 2024.
“This trend is evident in all the provinces,” the report states.
Corporal punishment has been prohibited in South African schools for almost three decades.
Section 10 of the South African Schools Act states that “no person may administer corporal punishment at a school to a learner”. Anyone who contravenes the provision commits an offence and can, on conviction, face a sentence that could be imposed for assault.
KwaZulu-Natal also recorded the highest rate of physical violence by teachers, at 4%, compared with 1.1% nationally.
The province had the highest reported rate of verbal abuse by teachers at 3.6%, more than three times the national rate of 1%.
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Learners in KwaZulu-Natal also reported violence from fellow learners, with 3.5% experiencing verbal abuse by other learners and 0.4% reporting physical violence by fellow learners.
Overall, only 78.2% of learners in KwaZulu-Natal reported that they had experienced no violence at school.
The Eastern Cape had the second-lowest proportion of learners reporting no violence, at 87.8%, followed by the Free State at 92.7% and North West at 93.3%.
At the other end of the scale, Gauteng recorded the highest proportion of learners reporting no violence at 97.6%, followed by Western Cape at 97% and Limpopo at 96.9%.
The national picture was considerably better than KwaZulu-Natal’s, with 91.6% of learners reporting that they had experienced no violence at school in 2024.
Despite the disparities between provinces, the DBE said the overall proportion of learners experiencing violence had been declining.
“It is encouraging to observe, however, that the overall percentage of individuals experiencing violence has been declining,” the report states.
The survey found no significant difference between male and female learners in the prevalence of experiencing corporal punishment or verbal abuse at school.
The DBE report said the General Household Survey asks learners whether they experienced violence, corporal punishment or verbal abuse at school during the three months preceding the survey, as well as the type of violence they experienced.
The findings therefore provide a snapshot of learner experiences during that period rather than a measure of every incident of violence occurring in schools across the province.
