Teacher and maths tutor cop interim suspension
A tutor hired through the state government’s $250m investment program is among the latest educators to face disciplinary proceedings.
Education
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Two more teachers have been given interim suspensions by the Victorian Institute of Teaching, including one employed to help tutor students after the pandemic.
The teachers are Tanya Whiteley, a former maths tutor at Mordialloc College, and Ashir Effendi, a teacher at Al-Taqwa College.
Ms Whitely started working at Mordialloc College in February 2021 and was employed until January 2022 on a fixed-term contract.
She was hired as a numeracy tutor through the Victorian Government’s $250 million investment in the Tutor Learning Initiative, which supported schools to address disruptions to students’ learning as a result of COVID-19.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Ms Whiteley previously worked at Fitzroy High School for seven years before a stint as a learning support worker at Box Hill TAFE.
She has a maths degree and several postgraduate qualifications.
It comes as a total of 47 teachers have now been subject to disciplinary proceedings this year alone by the VIT.
A Department of Education spokesman said it “does not comment on the individual circumstances of its former employees”.
A spokesman for Al-Taqwa College said Mr Effendi was “suspended by the college in late October, pending an investigation”.
“The College is co-operating with the authorities and will continue to do so. As this matter is the subject of an ongoing investigation, the College is unable to make any further comment at this time,” he said.
Other teachers suspended since the start of October include Anne-Maree Buckley and Andrew John Fitzgerald, who were both given interim suspensions. Amanda Jane Copeland and Richard Skalova Ho both had their registration cancelled and were disqualified from teaching in a school or early childhood service because they were given a Working With Children exclusion under the Worker Screening Act 2020.
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