Peter Williams: The Teaching Council Disgrace

Teacher registration has been fraught since it was introduced nearly 40 years ago

Among the understandable outrage over the Timothy Fisher scandal and the Teaching Council there was one incident which doesn’t inspire much confidence for the future of this organization which is responsible for the registration and regulation of the country’s 124,000 teachers.

Fisher was the sexual deviant who was finally sent to prison last year for crimes committed while he was a teacher, crimes the Teaching Council knew about as far back as 2015 but it never intervened or cancelled his registration, thus allowing him to continue working as a teacher.

David Farrar: Teaching Council conflicts

The Herald reports:

A probe into conflict-of-interest allegations at the Teaching Council was sparked by a whistle blower’s claims the agency spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in public funds on an advertising firm run by the CEO’s husband.

Chris Lynch: Free speech row erupts over teacher’s Facebook post on Treaty bill

A complaint over a teacher’s political comments on Facebook has sparked calls for the Teaching Council to throw it out, with ACT Party Education spokesperson Laura McClure labelling the case “vexatious” and a threat to free speech.

DTNZ: Free Speech Union defends teacher under investigation for Facebook comment

A primary school teacher has found herself at the centre of a controversy after expressing her opinion on social media, raising concerns about the balance between free speech and professional conduct.

Kate Hawkesby: The Teaching Council wrote to me, but why are they wasting their time doing that?

 

A couple of weeks ago I told you guys the story of the relief teacher censured and embroiled in court action, over removing an ear bud from a Year 10 student’s ear because he refused to remove it himself, and the teacher had asked him to stop listening to music and pay attention.

The student had been verbally abusive and refused to oblige and this relief teacher had had a gutsful.