Incompetent teachers to be ‘tagged’

A loophole allowing schools to employ ‘incompetent’ teachers is set to be closed, The Press reports.

Under a proposed education bill, the Teachers’ Council would have the power to annotate or ‘tag’ the national register to say a teacher had been deemed incompetent.

At present, a teacher could only be annotated if found guilty of misconduct or convicted of a crime.

Teachers’ Council director, Peter Lind, said the loophole meant teachers could “avoid addressing competency issues by moving between schools”.

The annotation on the publicly available register would say a teacher was registered “with conditions”, rather than refer to incompetence. School boards and principals could then check details with the council.

Of the 96,000 registered teachers in New Zealand, about 200 were deemed incompetent.