Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal chair Theodora Baker, pictured with tribunal member Simon Williams, needed extra tribunal members to cope with a trebling of referrals. Photo / Jason Oxenham, File
Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal chair Theodora Baker, pictured with tribunal member Simon Williams, needed extra tribunal members to cope with a trebling of referrals. Photo / Jason Oxenham, File
The Teaching Council says a jump in misconduct cases is not due to lower-quality teachers being hired because of the teacher shortage.
The Ministry of Education's latest annual report revealed that misconduct cases referred to the Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal trebled from 51 in the year to June 2018 to 155 in the latest June year, causing delays in deciding cases.
In a Herald article, Secondary Principals Council head James Morris and Early Childhood Council chief executive Peter Reynolds were reported by the Herald saying that the increase partly reflected schools and childcare centres being forced to recruit "people who might not have been hired if more teachers were available".
"The centres that are struggling, some are finding that either the centre itself or the teachers working within the centres are starting to cut corners and are just feeling the pressure, so we are starting to see referrals come from that as well," Reynolds said.
But Teaching Council interim chief executive Lesley Hoskin said the jump in referrals was due partly to the council adopting a lower threshold for referring cases to the tribunal, and partly to new staff working through a backlog of cases.
"The article makes a link between the increase in tribunal referrals and the hiring of low-quality teachers. This is not correct and not backed up by evidence," she said.
The issues stem from a 2015 law change requiring schools to report all cases of possible serious misconduct, all dismissals, and all resignations of teachers who had been advised of concerns about their teaching in the previous year.
"After law changes in 2015 the council expected, and did indeed receive, a small increase in reporting of teacher conduct and competency cases," Hoskin said.
Cases reported to the council increased from 591 in 2016-17 to 619 in the year to June last year and 646 in the latest June year.
Cases found serious enough to refer to the disciplinary tribunal increased from 45 in 2016-17 to 51 and then 155.
Even that 155 represented only 0.145 per cent of all registered teachers.
Teachers Disciplinary Tribunal members Lori Turketo, left, chair Theodora Baker and Simon Williams have been dealing with a backlog of cases. Photo / Jason Oxenham, File
"The tripling of referrals to the disciplinary tribunal in 2018-19, on the other hand, comes down to two things," Hoskin said.
"Firstly, there were changes to the threshold for matters having to be referred to the disciplinary tribunal, meaning more cases had to be referred.
"Secondly, the tripling relates to new staff working through a backlog of cases – some of which are complex and nuanced. The council hired new investigators, lawyers and panel chairs to process cases faster.
"We wholeheartedly apologise for not processing cases as quickly as we would have liked in the past and for the impact it has on the teachers involved."
She said it was "unfair and disingenuous of the article to suggest principals and professional leaders are employing low quality teachers, or that the Teaching Council is registering and certificating low quality teachers".
"There is no evidence to suggest teachers referred to the tribunal in 2018-19 were all newly employed, quite the opposite. Of the 155 cases referred to the disciplinary tribunal, more than three-quarters held a full practising certificate," she said.
New teachers start with provisional certification and can only achieve a full practising certificate after two years.
"The council can assure parents and the public that the vast majority of teachers educating tamariki are of the highest quality and deserving of respect and appreciation," Hoskin said.
"Only a tiny fraction of the country's 105,000-plus teachers (0.001 per cent in 2018-19) are referred for serious misconduct and not, as suggested in the Herald story, because 'schools were being forced to accept teachers at the margins of acceptable quality because there were just not enough teachers'."
