NZPF supports Teachers Council

NZPF supports Teachers Council

- New Zealand Principals’ Federation -

The New Zealand Principals Federation has spoken out in support of the New Zealand Teachers Council, after what it calls some recent and ill-informed publicity regarding the teacher registration process.

“We have full confidence in the Board of the New Zealand Teachers Council, we believe the Board members are of the highest integrity and we feel its’ processes are fair and robust,” said NZPF President Pat Newman. “It is unfortunate that politicians and the media have leapt to conclusions, based on a small number of individual cases.”

Newman was disappointed by Opposition education spokesman Bill English’s comments that ‘at the moment decisions made by the Teachers Council… do not reflect the professional standards of the vast majority of teachers.’

“That is yet another misleading statement by a politician,” says Newman. “There are nearly 80,000 teachers are registered in New Zealand. I can assure you that the New Zealand Teachers Council respects the professional standards of every single one of them.”

Newman says that the media has highlighted a dozen individual cases, but the portrayal of these cases in the media has not been fair nor reasonable. “There are a number of extenuating circumstances that cannot be made public in these cases. What I can say is that I have faith in the process these teachers have gone through to return to the classroom. The process is a robust and legal one.”

Newman says that the media has a social reponsibility to inform, not create a climate of fear and mistrust. He says that parents should continue to have confidence in the New Zealand Teachers Council, and is dissapointed at the reaction by politicians. “It’s a bit ironic to see politicians taking the Teachers Council to task over a robust process, when politicians themselves have recently been bending the rules, by pushing through legislation or paying back funds and then taking the moral high ground.”

-ENDS-

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