Tighter rules for teacher-learner WhatsApp communication mooted - IOL

The Department of Basic Education is looking at ways to strengthen how teachers communicate with learners on WhatsApp and other social media platforms, amid growing concern over the boundaries between legitimate support and inappropriate contact.

The move comes as Parliament has raised repeated concerns over sexual misconduct involving educators and learners. The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education was told that the Education Labour Relations Council had recorded 469 cases of sexual misconduct involving educators between 2018/19 and 2024/25.

A Gauteng teacher is also under investigation following allegations of inappropriate WhatsApp communication with a 17-year-old learner.

The teacher at Minerva Secondary School in Alexandra was placed on precautionary suspension after allegations that communication with the learner, which began in June, included inappropriate advances.

The allegations sparked a learner protest at the school in August, with the Gauteng Education Department saying the matter had been escalated for investigation.

The case has put a spotlight on the growing use of WhatsApp by teachers to communicate with learners about schoolwork, assignments and other matters outside the classroom.

Terrence Khala, acting director of Communication and Research at the Department of Basic Education, said the department was considering the issue as part of broader concerns about safeguarding learners and ensuring that interactions between educators and learners take place within appropriate professional boundaries.

He said the issue was highlighted during the department’s engagements with Parliament on statutory rape and sexual misconduct involving learners, as well as through interim reports from the Youth20 and Women20 processes.

“One of the potential areas of risk identified was direct and largely unregulated digital communication between individual educators and learners, including through platforms such as WhatsApp,” Khala said.

Khala said the department was not suggesting that WhatsApp communication between educators and learners was inherently inappropriate or that inappropriate communication was widespread across the education system. 

“Digital communication has become an important part of how schools, educators, learners and parents exchange information,” Khala said. “The concern is that one-on-one communication conducted outside appropriate institutional oversight can create safeguarding risks and make it more difficult for schools to enforce professional boundaries and accountability.” 

The department is considering how existing instruments, including exemplar codes of conduct and other school governance mechanisms, can assist schools and School Governing Bodies in developing school-level policies on digital communication.

Khala added that a key principle under consideration was that communication should, wherever practicable, take place through transparent and accountable channels rather than private, unmonitored one-on-one exchanges. 

“School-related WhatsApp communication could take place through appropriately constituted groups where there are clear rules regarding the purpose of the group, appropriate content and conduct, participation and accountability,” he said.

The department said schools do not have to wait for additional measures before acting against inappropriate conduct. Existing legislation, professional standards, employment frameworks and school safeguarding mechanisms already apply to educators.

It reiterated that inappropriate, sexually explicit, exploitative or abusive communication with a learner may constitute serious misconduct and, depending on the circumstances, may also trigger statutory reporting requirements and referral to law enforcement or child-protection authorities. 

Riaan van den Berg, a legal adviser at the Federation of Governing Bodies of South African Schools (FEDSAS), said schools needed clear rules on when and how teachers should communicate directly with learners.

He said one-on-one communication after hours should generally be restricted, except in emergencies or where a learner requires support, protection or care.

“After hours should be respected for both learners and educators who also have families and a personal life,” he said.

Van den Berg said schools could consider setting a cut-off time, such as 4pm or 6pm, depending on their circumstances.

He also backed the use of formal school communication systems rather than teachers relying on personal social media accounts.

“We support a formal and official channel and communication platform rather than a social networking platform,” he said.

Where WhatsApp groups are used, he said communication should preferably be visible to others rather than taking place privately between a teacher and learner.

Equal Education researcher Yolisa Piliso said the issue should not be reduced to the technology being used.

“Apart from fixing the focus only on the digital tools, we would like to see the discussion on this issue also include focus on the human behaviour, ethics, morals and values,” Piliso said.

She said South Africa already had a substantial constitutional and legislative framework governing the rights and responsibilities of learners and educators, and the focus should be on implementation and enforcement.

Piliso said safeguards were needed to protect learners without unnecessarily restricting legitimate educational relationships.

“The objective should not be to create a highly regulated environment in which ordinary interactions between learners and teachers are unnecessarily restricted. Rather, the objective should be to establish clear boundaries, accountability, and safeguards while preserving healthy educational relationships,” she said.