Teacher course closed down
DOZENS of budding primary teachers have been shocked by the collapse of Christian College’s religious-based teaching program, after an interstate education board revoked the course.
The Christian College Institute of Teaching and Learning was announced with much fanfare in 2015 — offering Bachelor of Education (Primary) and Master of Teaching (Primary) courses in collaboration with South Australian education provider Tabor.
The course, which had been taking tertiary students since 2015, was shut down this month following revelations it had been operating in Victoria without permission from the Teachers Registration Board of South Australia (TRB).
Board registrar Peter Lind said the Christian College operation “wasn’t part of the initial accreditation to Tabor College Adelaide”.
“We hadn’t been notified until after it had been started,” Dr Lind said.
Dr Lind said a specially-formed TRB panel had determined Tabor could not meet assurances staffing levels and moderation at the Christian College site would be of the same quality as SA operations. “It didn’t meet the requirements, essentially,” Dr Lind said.
The Geelong Advertiser understands 25 to 30 students have since been forced to re-enrol with other institutions, with some losing up to six months’ course credit.
Tabor president Johan Roux said the program had been operating on a conditional basis since 2017, and he was “extremely disappointed” by the TRB’s final decision.
“We have, on July 5, 2017, received a decision from the TRB which revokes our ability to continue the offering of these courses,” Mr Roux said.
“We are extremely disappointed that what we considered to be an innovative program in Teacher Education will not be allowed to grow into maturity.”
Mr Roux said the program was still fully-accredited in South Australia, and Tabor was “working to minimise any possible disadvantage to students”.
“We are truly disappointed about the terribly disruptive impact that this decision will have on our students and we have worked hard to find them a suitable alternative Higher Education Providers that will allow them to continue their studies,” he said.
“We are also in conversation with relevant government agencies and regulatory bodies around the issue of what our obligations to students regarding possible reim- bursement are.” Mr Roux would not go into detail on the TRB concerns and final ruling.
“In essence they did not believe that the specific delivery model is a model they wish to endorse at this stage,” he said.
One former student, who had been 18 months into her Bachelor of Education course, said most of her cohort had been re-accommodated with Eastern College — a Christian private Higher Education provider based out of Mulgrave.
Others have transferred to Deakin University, though it’s understood only seven of their previous 12 units have been recognised, with Tabor currently in negotiations for an eighth.
The student, who asked not to be named, said the course collapse had come as a shock.
“We hadn’t necessarily heard anything about it, it kind of was a little bit of a shock,” she said.
But she praised Tabor and Christian College’s handling of the situation. “They definitely got onto it as quickly as possible,” she said.
“They’ve pretty much given us full accreditation, which is good.”
Christian College chief executive Daryl Riddle laid the blame for the debacle entirely on Tabor. “At the time the CCITL campus opened its doors last year, Christian College understood all the accreditation processes had already been finalised by Tabor,” Mr Riddle said.
An August 2015 statement from Christian College announcing the program said the institute had been established “following years of prepara- tions, negotiations and submissions to various accreditation bodies”.
“This new venture will be an extremely beneficial addition to the education sector of Geelong, which Christian College is very proud to provide,” the statement said.
The institute had originally planned to commence similar faith-based secondary teaching degrees in 2018.