Gumleaf
February 3rd, 2008, 02:23 PM
Monday Feb 4 06:05 AEDT
Hundreds of teachers with records for assault, theft, stalking and drug-related offences have been judged fit for classes by an education watchdog.
The Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) has publicly identified 15 teachers convicted of crimes, but News Limited newspapers report up to 400 other convicted teachers have been allowed to remain registered to teach, including 199 last year.
In the past five years, those teachers have included a stalker who broke an intervention order 39 times; one who sold school sports gear and took soccer clinic fees, pocketing $9,000; one who fled the scene of a hit-run accident; four who forged medical certificates for sick leave and others convicted of serious drugs offences.
Australian Families Association president Angela Conway said some teachers deserved another chance but parents had the right to know their records.
"Even if they don't name the teachers, there should be published tables of offences where the panel gives reasons why they have decided to let them keep teaching," Ms Conway said.
The VIT conducts national criminal history checks on Victorian teachers.
Convicted child sex offenders are instantly de-registered but a panel determines the applications of people guilty of other indictable offences.
VIT chief Andrew Ius said most of the offenders cleared to teach had offended long ago.
" ... There are circumstances where a teacher or graduate teacher with a one-off mistake in their past should be allowed to work in the profession," he said.
Meanwhile, many school principals are turning to alcohol and most believe school work was causing their families to suffer, a National Joint Secondary Principals Associations (NJSPA) survey of almost 1,100 private and public school principals has found, Fairfax reported.
A third of principals had a diagnosed medical condition caused or worsened by work, 67 felt families and loved ones suffered because of the lack of time and energy they had for them while about 20 per cent admitted using alcohol to cope with stress, the survey found.
Andrew Blair, the president of the Australian Secondary Principals Association, an affiliate of the NJSPA, warned that without changes, more principals would succumb to stress and teachers would not be inclined to become principals.
But a spokesman for Victorian education minister Bronwyn Pike said the government valued principals and had introduced support programs for them.
©AAP 2008
Hundreds of teachers with records for assault, theft, stalking and drug-related offences have been judged fit for classes by an education watchdog.
The Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) has publicly identified 15 teachers convicted of crimes, but News Limited newspapers report up to 400 other convicted teachers have been allowed to remain registered to teach, including 199 last year.
In the past five years, those teachers have included a stalker who broke an intervention order 39 times; one who sold school sports gear and took soccer clinic fees, pocketing $9,000; one who fled the scene of a hit-run accident; four who forged medical certificates for sick leave and others convicted of serious drugs offences.
Australian Families Association president Angela Conway said some teachers deserved another chance but parents had the right to know their records.
"Even if they don't name the teachers, there should be published tables of offences where the panel gives reasons why they have decided to let them keep teaching," Ms Conway said.
The VIT conducts national criminal history checks on Victorian teachers.
Convicted child sex offenders are instantly de-registered but a panel determines the applications of people guilty of other indictable offences.
VIT chief Andrew Ius said most of the offenders cleared to teach had offended long ago.
" ... There are circumstances where a teacher or graduate teacher with a one-off mistake in their past should be allowed to work in the profession," he said.
Meanwhile, many school principals are turning to alcohol and most believe school work was causing their families to suffer, a National Joint Secondary Principals Associations (NJSPA) survey of almost 1,100 private and public school principals has found, Fairfax reported.
A third of principals had a diagnosed medical condition caused or worsened by work, 67 felt families and loved ones suffered because of the lack of time and energy they had for them while about 20 per cent admitted using alcohol to cope with stress, the survey found.
Andrew Blair, the president of the Australian Secondary Principals Association, an affiliate of the NJSPA, warned that without changes, more principals would succumb to stress and teachers would not be inclined to become principals.
But a spokesman for Victorian education minister Bronwyn Pike said the government valued principals and had introduced support programs for them.
©AAP 2008