Proper documentation necessary with hiring teachers

According to Leacock, the requirements for proper documents to be provided when hiring new teachers is nothing new, but it is only now being enforced by the Teaching Services Commission.

David Leacock

David Leacock

“There are requirements under the law, dating back actually to 2000; the revised edition of the then education act and the education rules of 2000, which stipulate requirements for persons who are to be employed as teachers. One of those requirements is the requirement to have a valid teaching license. The law requires that, among other things, one of the things it requires is that the person not have been convicted of any kind of felony that would indicate unsuitability for teaching. So to verify that we have been asking for police records. Now, this is not something new. Maybe the only thing new is that we are enforcing it. For very long this was what is required and we are simply holding our schools and managing authorities to account in the sense of complying with what is required. There was that risk of people being hired without the proper vetting and that kind of thing. But I think we have signaled throughout the process when we had all the negotiations and all the controversy about the teaching services commission; that this is one of our concerns; that we really have to ensure that the persons that are hired to teach our children are the most suitably qualified and able persons. So we need to start to follow what is required and that is one of the things we kept saying. And you are very well aware and I guess the general public is aware of cases where individuals use schools as an opportunity to prey on children. So it’s very important that we start to do what is required and that means all of us.”

While the payments and documentation are being processed, the teachers who were hired without approval will be allowed to continue working.