Education Legislation Amendment
Rev Hon Fred Nile MLC, gave the following address on the Education Legislation Amendment (Staff) Bill 2006 before the NSW Legislative Council; “The Christian Democratic Party is pleased to support the Education Legislation Amendment (Staff) Bill. The bill seeks to amend the Teaching Service Act 1980, the Technical and Further Education Commission Act 1990 and the Education (School Administrative and Support Staff) Act 1987 to create a new framework for dealing with the conduct and performance of persons employed under the Acts and to dismiss and otherwise deal with employees who become prohibited persons. Like other honourable members who have spoken in this debate, I spent my school years in the New South Wales public school system. Last weekend I had the pleasant experience of attending the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary—or sesquicentenary—celebrations of Cleveland Street Intensive English High School. Over the years the school has been an infants school, a primary school, an intermediate high school and then a full high school. It is currently the main intensive English high school in Sydney.
The teachers of Cleveland Street High School organised some impressive activities for last weekend. On Friday there was an open assembly at the school involving current and former students, invited guests and departmental representatives. Between 300 and 400 people were in attendance. On Saturday there was a school open day and students provided musical entertainment. On Saturday night there was a special celebration dinner at the Canterbury racetrack function rooms for more than 300 guests. The guests of honour were Her Excellency the Governor of New South Wales, Professor Marie Bashir, and her husband, Sir Nicholas Shehadie, both of whom are former students of Cleveland Street High School.
As a former student, I was pleased to join them on that exciting night. Unfortunately, I could not find anyone from my class—I graduated in 1949—but I found a graduate from 1948 and graduates from earlier years also attended the function. I do not know where my classmates are. I am most appreciative of the education that I received in the State system. The Cleveland Street school is the second oldest public school in New South Wales—which means that it is the second oldest in Australia. I think Fort Street High School is the oldest school in the State. Cleveland Street High School opened its doors in May 1856.
I am pleased to support the bill because there have been problems with the administrative and disciplinary procedures for dealing with teachers who underperform. I am particularly concerned about those teachers whose conduct is morally unsatisfactory.
We are all aware of some very sad cases in recent years of male teachers becoming infatuated with female teenage students, which have led to the student leaving school and cohabiting with that teacher. The teachers, whom I will not name, do not accept that they have abused their position of authority and power. In one case, after disciplinary procedures the teacher concerned successfully sued the department for mental stress and was awarded compensation. I believe he brought the stress upon himself. I hope that this bill will bring about more rapid action by the department so that teachers who abuse the trust placed in them are forced to cease teaching as quickly as possible and so that they realise they are no longer suitable as teachers. The legislation provides that they will have no right to claim compensation from the department.
Teachers who have had problems in the workplace, some of which were sensitive but not moral misconduct, have approached me. The Government must take into account circumstances where a principal or others have evaluated a teacher's performance. I know of cases of conflict between a female principal, female senior teachers and a male teacher. The female teachers ganged up against the male teacher and made his working life very difficult. The female teachers reported that his performance was unsatisfactory. When I refer such matters to the Minister he goes back to the same people who, in my opinion, have harassed the male teacher and forced him out of his profession—it goes around in circles. On the basis of the information he is provided, the Minister finds justification for the decisions of the principal and others. I call it a "personality clash", which has nothing to do with the ability or performance of the teacher, but rather the inability of female teachers to work with a male teacher.
I am not sure what the solution is, but the education system needs male teachers to provide role models for male students. If such conflicts continue, males will be discouraged from becoming teachers or staying in the education system. At the moment the swing is from males in positions of authority in many schools to females in authority. In the past only male teachers were employed at Cleveland Street High School and many other high schools, and females had other roles. The Government must deal with such sensitive cases to ensure justice for male teachers. I note a number of very positive aspects of the legislation to which other speakers have referred.
The bill will provide a faster and less complex process for dealing with poor performance and misconduct. The Hon. John Ryan explained the mini-trial procedure that this bill will eliminate and replace with a new streamlined system that is similar to that introduced for public servants under the Public Sector Employment and Management Act 2002, which I understand has worked satisfactorily. The bill also simplifies the current arrangement in which there are 12 different categories of breaches of discipline and introduces a general category of disciplinary action called misconduct. This will avoid technical arguments about whether the issues in question have been properly characterised as fitting within one of the specific categories. The bill also ensures that remedial action can be taken as an alternative to disciplinary action. Remedial action includes formal and informal counselling, staff development and training.
In many cases a teacher's work performance not misconduct—that is, their ability as a teacher—could be addressed by providing them with further training that would enable them to continue teaching rather than leaving the education system. The blame for their lack of professionalism not being of a high enough standard may be put on their lack of preparation and training. Importantly, this bill deals with matters that arise from misconduct. The bill provides that an educational professional who works with children and who is convicted of a serious sex offence or otherwise becomes a prohibited person, will be dismissed from employment effective from the date of his or her conviction. If such a person is convicted of a crime by a criminal court, there is no place for him or her in the public education system, something with which I am sure all honourable members would agree.
The dismissal will occur as a direct consequence of the criminal conviction, not as a result of departmental disciplinary action. Any person dismissed as a consequence of such a conviction has the right to appeal. The teacher is a role model in the classroom. We must ensure that his or her behaviour not only in relation to the curriculum but also general values are of a high standard. Students will move from the public system into the private system if higher moral values and standards of discipline, or even the enforcement of wearing school uniforms et cetera, which I believe create better behaved children, are sought. I remind the House that in the 1980s legislation, and even in the 1950s Sir Henry Parkes stressed that our system was to be secular and free. Unfortunately the word "secular" has led to a great deal of confusion and is now often misquoted by new teachers who are told to means atheistic or humanistic. In the 1880s "secular" in education legislation and subsequent reform bills in the 1900s did not mean atheistic but non-denominational. In other words, the public school system could not be used by teachers, for example, to encourage students to become Catholics, Baptists or Anglican. The values had to be Judaeo-Christian; in other words, biblical values.
Secular meant non-denominational, not atheistic. I hope the department and particularly the Minister will ensure that the meaning of the word "secular" is understood by all teachers, because confusion is caused if new were teachers think the school system has to be amoral—meaning it does not have values. It does have values. Those values, I believe, are best summed up in the term Judaeo-Christian ethic. I am pleased that is officially upheld by the department, as it has been by previous education Ministers, and that that position will be maintained in the future. We support the bill.