Dignity: The missing building block in South African schools?

Abstract

There is a dire need in South Africa to build a strong education system to meet the needs and expectations of its people. Unfortunately, education is currently in an unacceptable state, with, inter alia, escalating school-based violence, deteriorating matriculation results and standards, high absenteeism rates among educators, strikes, and a lack of proper facilities and infrastructure. Lack of respect for the right to dignity of stakeholders will be investigated as an underlying contributing factor to this unfortunate situation. First, the concept of dignity will be discussed. Secondly, certain conduct, actions and decisions on the part of the different stakeholders will be considered with specific reference to the impact thereof on the different dimensions of the right to dignity of other stakeholders. It will be argued that all stakeholders in education infringe, to some extent, the right to dignity of others and that they should be sensitised to these infringements.