Education bodies must vet teachers

We're not surprised that the national department of basic education buried its head in the sand this week when we tried to ask questions about the fact that one in 25 staff in the department has a criminal record.

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Many of those criminals are still in front of classes teaching, despite their records reflecting offences including rape, murder, assault, theft, robbery, fraud, drug-related crimes and housebreaking.

According to the TPN Credit Bureau, last year there were about 16 000 employees of the department nationwide who had criminal records.