7.2 Strategies to combat unethical practices
7.2.2 Schools need to have a clear Code of Conduct /Ethics
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tendency of being too comfortable for principals in their positions and learning ways of defrauding the institution they work for.
(Mrs Gadlela, post level one educator from Intuthuko Secondary School)
There foregoing assertions strongly make the case for principals and educators to be trained on ethics. Due to the widely spread corruption perpetrated by principals and teachers, which has been reported on various forms of media, focus has to be placed on continuous ethics training.
The ethics training needs to be continuous so that it gets embedded in both the principals’ and teachers’ minds. In addition, the significance of training is that when an employee if found involved in unethical behaviour, sanctions can be instituted with minimal objections. However, prior to instituting any form of sanction, the employees need to be well exposed to the sanctions.
When there is proper training, and sanctions are consistently communicated and known by all staff members, the message sinks into one’s brain. The benefits of ethics training, when it is continuously done, is that the conscience of the employees is revived. However, to ensure that the embedded ethics understanding remains, there is a need for providing mentors for principals and teachers. When principals and teachers have mentors, they will not be comfortable to engage in corrupt activities.
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(Mrs Dube, principal of Senzokwethu Primary School)
In concert with the latter assertion, Mrs Mngadi and Mr Ndlovu added that when the code of conduct has been made available to principals and teachers, it needs to be clarified. This is what Mrs Mngadi had to share:
..., ethics code of conduct is very important for employees to behave accordingly.
However, since it cannot speak for itself, SACE and DBE need to communicate it to all the teachers and even give them copies to file. Moreover, every meeting session, ethics subject needs to be touched upon.
(Mrs Mngadi, principal of Sakhisizwe Secondary School)
Likewise, Mr Ndlovu reiterated that: “..., no principal or educator can claim to be not aware of ethical issues involved in the work that he/she does, but because they are seldom reminded by SACE or Department of Education more about ethics, they tend to take the issue of ethics lightly”. (Mr Ndlovu, the principal of Iphothwe Secondary School)
In compatibility with the foregoing assertions, Mr Jali added that the best way to embed ethics in the educators and principals is by assigning mentors to support them on ethics. He contended that:
..., for the Department of Education to keep principals and teachers intact with the ethics, they need to be assigned mentors who are morally strong to support them.
Moreover, principals as Departmental officials need to craft policies in line with SACE code of professional ethics to guide educators’ conduct.
(Mr Jali, post level one educator of Senzokuhle Primary school)
Similarly, Mr Pelepele from Ikhethelo Primary school felt that principals, as the representatives of the Head of Department, have a duty to promote ethical leadership in schools. Their failure to uphold the Departmental legislative mandates suggest that they are not fit to hold the office and they need to be reprimanded accordingly. This is what he had to say:
As a principal I act on behalf of the provincial Head of Department, therefore my conduct has to reflect what the Department aspires. Principals are supposed to promote posit school culture through school codes of conducts that are in line with SACE code of professional ethics. Moreover, as principal we need to demonstrate ethical leaders through our actions.
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(Mr Pelepele, principal of Ikhethelo Primary School)
Likewise, Ms Thobela asserted that principals are responsible for the functionality of the school and therefore they need to work closely with their School Governing Bodies to formulate school policies, including the ethical code of conduct for teachers and learners. This is what she had to say:
I think principals and school governing bodies are supposed to formulate code of conduct for the teachers and learners so that they build school culture guided by the code. I believe this can work because the SGB is composed of all school community stakeholders and each component prior to meeting sitting seeks mandate and later on reports to its constituency of the resolutions.
(Ms Thobela, Post level 1 educator of Iphothwe Secondary school)
Meanwhile Ms Grootboom of Zakhele Primary School said that: “Principals are department officials in their own respect, so they need to take initiatives in ensuring that schools have codes of conduct and ensure that codes of conduct are enforced”. (Ms Grootboom, post level 1 educator of Zakhele Primary School)
Similar sentiments were echoed by Mr Mpofu of Sakhisizwe Secondary School, who had this to say: “Code of conduct is essential in setting up the school culture and guiding the behaviour of staff members. This is the responsibility of the principal to ensure that the code of conduct is available and is a living document”. (Mr Mpofu, post level one educator from Sakhisizwe Secondary School)
The foregoing assertions suggest that, though the Department of Education and SACE have a responsibility to promote ethics in schools among teachers and school principals, principals as the head of institutions have the greatest responsibility to ensure that there is discipline and a culture that is known and upheld by all members. The School Governing Body has the major role to play in the formulation of school policies including an ethics code of conduct. Therefore, each component of the SGB should communicate the ethics code of conduct to their constituencies. The participants felt that there would be no resistance from the teachers to conform to the ethics code, if all relevant stakeholders were part in the formulation of the ethics code of conduct. As a result, unethical behaviours were bound to be eliminated in schools.
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