Class discrimination

I am so disappointed to find that New Zealand, despite the teacher shortage, persists in treating foreign teachers with qualifications as unsuitable for employment. My heart goes to Mazlinah binte Haji Mohamad Noor ( NZ Herald, July 19) to have applied for more than 200 teaching jobs with no more success than I had 20 years ago.

The proposed reasons given for the discrimination included a “toxic mix of institutional bias, Islamophobia and unconscious bias”. How could a country like New Zealand allow this kind of prejudice?

Twenty years ago, I had to give up my career as a teacher when I married a New Zealand man. My British teacher’s qualification and working as a qualified teacher both in America and England was worthless. My work in New Zealand consisted of menial work.

If New Zealand needs to find more teachers, why not ask the person folding towels in the hospital laundry, or the cleaner on the night shift working in Auckland offices?

There are many qualified teachers doing menial jobs like I have done throughout New Zealand.

Caroline Mabry, Glen Eden.