Teacher blacklist

THE secretive education watchdog charged with keeping Territory kids safe from dodgy and incompetent teachers black-listed just three people from NT classrooms in the year ending June 2018.

The Teacher Registration Board last week made its 2017/18 annual report public at the request of Education Minister Selena Uibo’s office, having kept the document off its website since last September.

The report does not say why the teachers were black-listed from the classroom, but leaked meeting minutes and interstate case studies show the most common reason for cancelling a teacher’s registration is for inappropriate sexual conduct towards students.

Board director Maree Garrigan said the regulator does not comment on “individual cases” and declined to answer questions about the disciplinary inquiries, which are open to the public but which the board has never advertised.

A further 23 disciplinary inquiries – either “preliminary” or full inquiries – are ongoing, but records show the board has previously chosen not to look into complaints including that a teacher assaulted a special needs student, and has repeatedly cleared teachers to return to the classroom, including those with criminal records for assaulting children.

The annual report also reveals 41 people were caught working as teachers without registration or authorisation.

The board, which claims to be a “rigorous” regulator, notes that “no prosecutions were instigated”.

Ms Garrigan would not say why the board has never prosecuted any of the hundreds of breaches of registration its audits have uncovered, including in one case where a teacher had worked for more than 30 years without registration.

The board made headlines last year when the NT News revealed it had approved a convicted arsonist and attempted armed robber to work as a teacher, who went on to sexually molest girls in his locked, darkened classroom during lunch breaks.