New Zealand School Trustees Association
Memorandum to Boards : 2010/9
School :
Chair :
Principal :
From : Colin Davies(Manager, Service Delivery NZSTA cdavies@nzsta.org.nz)
Date : 21 June 2010
Subject: Education Act - Update on Changes
Purpose : There has now been a change to the Education Act in relation to police vetting, data matching and some other matters. This memo outlines the key aspects. In addition there have been two Bills in the past few days which also propose changes to the Education Act which you should be aware of.
Changes effective from 20 May 2010 in the Education Act 1989
Amendments to the Act have now come into effect. Key changes are
· introducing greater requirements on the vetting of those who may have unsupervised access to students and boards now go direct to police for a vet for non teaching staff and contractors;
· matching of information between the New Zealand Teachers Council (NZTC) and the Ministry of Education to identify people teaching in schools without registration;
· limited statutory managers or commissioners of a school, may be appointed “as being of a named body corporate”
· changing some of the NZTC disciplinary procedures;
· providing for more flexibility in the holding of trustee elections and
· addressing various minor or technical issues.
Police Vetting: Effective from 20th May 2010 the New Zealand Teachers Council no longer receives, and manages vetting requests to New Zealand Police for non-teacher roles in schools. T he four weeks transitional period has now elapsed and all applications for new police vets are to have been applied using the new requirements.
MoE Circular 2010/09 - Changes to Police vetting requirements outlines the key changes to the police vetting process. You will have also received a communication from Police outlining their processes (for further enquires related to this matter, or the vetting process please e-mail - QueryME@police.govt.nz ).
Data matching: It is likely to occur quite soon and this may identify situations where current teachers may not be registered; it is therefore timely to check that there are systems in place to ensure that there is a process to verify this on a regular basis and also that current records are up to date.
Note that the Education Act requires that “No employer shall continue to employ in any teaching position any person who holds neither a practising certificate nor an authorisation, if that person is not under the general supervision of a person who holds a practising certificate.”
Boards may be liable to a fine of up to $5,000, if they breach this requirement and the “teacher” may also be liable to a fine of up to $2,000 (s137).
If you find that a current employee, who undertakes teaching duties, does not have a current registration or LAT then that must be rectified. Discuss with your NZSTA adviser any employment issues.
Proposed Changes to the Education Act 1989
The following have yet to have their first reading in the house. Therefore submission dates are not yet known. We will advise further on their progress.
Education Amendment Bill (No 2) 169-1 (2010), Government Bill
In terms of the schooling sector the Bill has a policy focus to —
· introduce secondary-tertiary programmes to give greater opportunities for secondary students to spend time learning in a tertiary environment or in the workplace
· updates and clarify the law affecting private schools.
There are also some minor policy changes to school enrolment scheme priorities for offering places to out-of-zone students which are designed to give some priority to children of board members and of former pupils.
Education (Board of Trustee Freedom) Amendment Bill 172-1 (2010), Members Bill
This is a Private Members Bill drawn from the ballot.
The Bill states as its purpose “The purpose of this Act is to enable Boards of Trustees to manage their own affairs by administering the employment of teachers at their school.”
In essence it would enable a board to negotiate the employment conditions for those teachers they employ. The exact details of how that would operate are unclear at this stage.
Colin Davies