New Zealand Teachers Bullied at School

Yesterday I wrote to the Ministry of Education in Christchurch and will report back their response as a comment on this blog latter. It has become clear that the Ministry is satisfied that dishonesty and non compliance is an acceptable situation in the education sector and that bullying and incompetence can be swept under the carpet. We will go on researching but I have no faith in the Ministry’s ability to manage anything.

Dear Pauline,

I have struggled for over 2 years now to understand the inaction of the Ministry of Education regarding the issues at LPHS and the Ministry’s willingness to allow any resolution to drag out beyond what I would consider reasonable time frames.  I therefore would like answers to the following questions.

1. 1.       Is a publicly funded school allowed to ignore an Occupational Health and Safety complaint from a member of the public?  
2. 2.       Does the Ministry of Education with its policy of a “high trust model” take complaints of dishonesty seriously and implement more critical evaluations of information received from sources accused?
3. 3.       Is the School Trustees Association funded to protect the integrity of the education system or to protect the interests of individual board members from liability of their actions or inactions? And if it’s the latter who does protect the integrity of the system?
4. 4.       Who within the civil service is responsible for insuring that the requirements of the State Sector Act are met in education? I refer specifically to the to the “good faith” and “good employer”  obligations.
5. 5.       What is the Ministry of Education’s policy on workplace bullying and what procedures are in place to police and prevent it?
6. 6.       Given the situation at LPHS what credibility can be given to ERO reports on schools
7. 7.       What statistical information is collected on teacher competency procedures that could be relied on to identify rogue and unethical behaviour in schools?
8. 8.       What exactly is a reasonable timeframe?  2 Years?
9. 9.       What degree of incompetence is required on the part of a BOT or Principal to generate Minedu action?
10. 10.    What exactly is the Ministry of Education’s problem with paying out for disregarded sick leave?  I certainly am referring to the good faith requirements here.

I look forward to your prompt reply

Regards

Filed under: Back ground, Bullying, LPHS, Minedu, Minister, Questions