Teacher accused of striking children re-employed

An early childhood centre has re-employed a teacher accused of striking children. Photo / iStock

Education officials are "extremely concerned" a Porirua early childhood centre has re-employed a teacher accused of striking children.

The centre has again hired one of the teachers at the centre of allegations three years ago.

Katrina Casey, the Ministry of Education's head of sector enablement and support, said it put the centre on a provisional licence and barred the teacher from having any contact with children.

"We're extremely concerned that the early childhood education service has chosen to re-employ a teacher who had previous allegations of hitting children still unresolved," Ms Casey said.

"The background to the incident is that in August 2012 we were informed the service would be suspending staff after allegations of teachers hitting children.

"The allegations were that teachers were hitting children as a means of discipline."

Ministry staff immediately visited the centre, where relief teachers taught while the allegations were investigated.

"The three teachers involved in the allegations resigned and we directed the service to report the teachers concerned to the Teachers Council. At that time in 2012 the Teachers Council were the appropriate authority responsible for teacher registration," Ms Casey said.

"We reclassified the service's licence to a provisional licence, and conducted numerous visits to the service, including unannounced visits, over the following nine months.

"In May 2013 the service was granted a full licence again, having met the conditions required. We continued to offer support for professional development to the service."

In June the ministry was informed one of those teachers was back at the centre. Officials carried out an unannounced visit and confirmed that was correct.

"It became clear that the teachers involved in the 2012 incident had not in fact been referred to the Teachers Council," Ms Casey said.

"The investigation into the service's re-employment of the teacher is continuing. The Education Council - which is now responsible for the registration of teachers - is also investigating.

"While the investigation is continuing, the service has asked the teacher not to come in to the premises."

A staff member at the early childhood centre this afternoon said nobody was available to immediately comment.