Go to the ID21 home page   ID21 - communicating development research
Education
 
Search the whole ID21 database
 

Help page and other search methods
    ID21 Education
  Education for All
  Access & Inclusion
  Skills & Training
  ICTs
  Health & HIV/AIDS
 
    ID21 Society & Economy
 
    ID21 Health
 
    ID21 Home page
 
    Gender and Violence in African Schools
 
    About ID21
 
    Links
 
    Contact ID21
 
    ID21News
 
    ID21 Insights
 
    Site map
 
     

Child abuse by teachers in Zimbabwe

Analysis of 246 reported cases of abuse by teachers in secondary schools in Zimbabwe, 1990 to 1997, identified 212 cases of sexual abuse, 33 cases of physical abuse and one case of emotional abuse.

Sexual abuse - Most sexual abuse perpetrators (99.1 percent) were male. 69.3 percent were under 30 years old, 29.7 percent were 30-40, 1 percent was over 40. Furthermore 81.6 percent of perpetrators were trained teachers. 65.6 percent of perpetrators had had ‘sexual intercourse’ with their pupils and other abuses include writing love letters, fondling (breasts, buttocks, thighs, private parts), kissing or hugging, rape, attempted rape, and showing pornographic material to a pupil.

Physical Abuse - Analysis of the 33 cases shows that most perpetrators (94.1 percent) were male and trained. Most pupils (75.8 percent) had been caned, beaten, whipped, or hit without the head teacher’s authority. Others had been slapped, punched, and one pupil was kicked. The study found that 80 percent of the pupils caned, beaten, whipped or hit were male. Although corporal punishment of female pupils is banned it is clear that it is used on both sexes. All pupils punched or kicked by perpetrators were male whilst female pupils were slapped or caned.

Emotional Abuse - One case of emotional abuse was reported: a male teacher had made male and female pupils kneel on hot cement surfaces without shoes and all had developed blisters on their feet.

Contributor(s): Almon Shumba

Source(s):
Insights special isssue - Conspiracy of silence? Stamping out abuse in African schools More information.

Date: 16 July 2001

Further Information:
Almon Shumba
Department of Educational Foundations
University of Botswana
Post bag UB 00702
Gabarone
Botswana

Email: shumbaaeducation@mopipi.ub.bw

University of Botswana

Other related links:
'Tackling taboos: abuse of girls in Zimbabwean schools'

Search Girls' Education for 'Preliminary Investigation of the Abuse of Girls in Zimbabwean Junior Secondary Schools'

'Sexual Harassment – A Major Hindrance to Learning' from FAWE

Search Panos for 'Tested To Their Limit- Sexual harassment in schools and educational institutions in Kenya'

UNESCO's Office for Asia and the Pacific has excellent links on adolescent sexual health

'Premarital sex and school dropout in Kenya: can schools make a difference?'

Views expressed on these pages are not necessarily those of DFID, IDS, id21 or other contributing institutions. Unless stated otherwise articles may be copied or quoted without restriction, provided id21 and originating author(s) and institution(s) are acknowledged.

Copyright © 2001 id21. All rights reserved.

Week beginning Monday, 13th August 2001
FREE Information Delivery services from id21:
Get updates by email: id21 news
Insights: research digests

id21 is enabled by the UK Government Department for International Development(www.dfid.gov.uk) and hosted by the Institute of Development Studies (www.ids.ac.uk/ids), at the University of Sussex, UK. Charitable Company No: 877338. id21 is a oneworld.net (www.oneworld.org) partner and a mediachannel affiliate (www.mediachannel.org).

 

 

Go to the University of Botswana site.