The Department of Basic Education has been forced to do an egg dance in its attempts to defend a shocking and hopelessly inappropriate matric exam drama question that asks pupils how they would direct a scene depicting the rape of an infant.

The question, based on an extract from the play Tshepang, inspired by the real-life rape of a nine-month-old baby in 2001, drew blanket condemnation from anti-rape activists, educationists, parents and from many of the pupils themselves.

The department responded by saying that ''academic freedom'' prevailed in South Africa, that the question was ''well within the prescripts of the curriculum'' and that ''young adults'' should be aware of what is one of the country's biggest social problems.

Just for good measure, officials added that, if there were sufficient evidence that exam candidates had been adversely affected by the question, it would not count for marks.

Our rape statistics are appalling - 65000 sexual crimes, many of them involving children, were recorded last year.

But surely there are better ways to educate pupils about this terrible, violent crime than by asking them to imagine and describe the act. Some of the children might themselves have been victims of a sexual predator and tackling the question would have been terribly traumatic for them.

The sensitive, complex nature of the question makes it more appropriate for a university drama class, and even then students would have to be guided in tackling it.

By all means, foster debate among pupils about burning social issues - but when dealing with crimes of despicable violence, surely the rule of thumb for educators should be to err on the side of caution.

Source: http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2013/11/28/no-way-to-make-youngsters-aware-of-sexual-violence