MASERU — The Lesotho Association of Teachers (LAT) condemns, teachers who get into intimate relationships with learners.
This is according to the statement the association released.
It says, these acts are not only unprofessional, heinous, trust-corrosive and perilous to the students but also tarnish the very core of their teaching profession.
It states, there cannot be any convincing reason advanced for this unethical behaviour.
“Notwithstanding the public trust on teachers to groom and nurture an ethical nation with teachers that set the pace with ethical conduct as a basic benchmark, the Lesotho Association of Teachers has a clear Code of conduct that sets out principles and standards of behaviour in relation to learners, colleagues, authority and work which members are continuously reminded of”, adds the statement.
This Code of conduct augments and is commensurate, to a very large extent, with the Ministry of Education and Training Codes of Good Practice, 2011.
Moreover, the statement indicates that it follows therefore that even teachers who are not privy to the LAT Code of conduct have a set of rules that regulate their conduct towards learners. It can therefore be said that these teachers who engage in these acts do so purely out of their volution not that there are no instruments deterring teachers from these depraved acts.
Therefore the Union calls upon the public, the government of Lesotho and members of LAT to work together to denounce this conduct and ensure that legal action is taken against any teacher alleged to have an intimate relationship with their students.
It further calls on students to disclose such teachers among who are those who believe that they may not be caught for this emotional, power and abuse.
LAT is a teachers union founded in 1986.It is a professional union of Primary and Post-Primary teachers of Lesotho. It was registered in 1995 under the LABOUR CODE ORDER (No. 24) of 1992.
LAT goal is to jealously safe guard all the socio-economic and professional rights of teachers in Lesotho as they are enshrined in the ILO/UNESCO recommendations on status of teachers…
