Education
Whether a principal and/or a group of teachers can expel a learner for offences against a school; if so, what are the relevant details?
No. Only the provincial Head of Department [HoD] has the authority to expel a student.
The procedure is as follows:
When students are enrolled at a particular school, they, by implication, agree to abide by that school’s code of conduct. In fact, the South African Schools Act [Section 8[4] states that nothing exempts students from the obligation to comply with the code of conduct of the school attended.
If a student is believed to have violated the school’s code of conduct, the principal can decide to refer the matter to the School Governing Body (SGB) for consideration. If it is believed that the student may be guilty of serious misconduct [as determined by the code of conduct], then a formal disciplinary hearing must take place. The conduct of such a hearing is carefully prescribed by the Regulations Relating to Disciplining, Suspension and Expulsion of Learners at Public Schools in the Western Cape, of province of the Western Cape: Provincial Gazette Extraordinary no 6939, Dated 15 December 2011 [Circular 22/2012].
If, after this process is completed, it is believed that the actions of the student warrant expulsion, then a formal recommendation is made by the SGB to the HoD for the student’s expulsion.
Once received, the recommendation of expulsion is carefully considered by the HoD. After careful deliberation by the HoD a decision will then be reached on whether to uphold or dismiss the expulsion recommendation. This decision, by necessity, needs to balance the rights of the individual student and the school concerned.
If the HoD turns down the expulsion request, this does not change the SGB’s original finding that the student is guilty of violating the school’s code of conduct. In this instance, the matter will be referred back to the SGB, who will then be required to apply an alternative sanction, e.g. corrective suspension and/or any other sanction in terms of their code of conduct.
If, however, the expulsion recommendation is upheld, the student in question, and by extension, their parents, have the right of appeal to the provincial Minister of Education. The provincial minister then has to apply his or her mind to the facts of the case at hand and again, after careful consideration, decide either to uphold or dismiss the appeal. If the parent does not agree with the appeal decision, the matter can be taken on review to the High Court.
