Victorian Institute of Teaching annual report reveals 45 teachers suspended

The Victorian Institute of Teaching’s latest annual report reveals 45 teachers were suspended on an interim basis in the past financial year – a 28 per cent increase from the previous year.

More than 40 teachers have been suspended on an interim basis by the state’s peak teaching regulator.

More than 40 teachers have been interimly suspended by the state’s peak teaching regulator.

The Victorian Institute of Teaching’s latest annual report reveals 45 teachers were suspended on an interim basis in the past financial year – a 28 per cent increase from the previous year.

There were 516 reviews of interim suspensions conducted.

The VIT had 390 reportable allegations of a registered person engaging in sexual offences and other types of misconduct.

There were also 240 complaints relating to an educator being “seriously incompetent” and other misconduct.

Victoria Police notified the VIT on 233 occasions to conduct an investigation into a teacher who may have committed a criminal offence.

There were 23 Working With Children notifications relating to teachers.

In one case, the VIT received a notification from a school regarding a teacher who had displayed grooming type behaviour towards learners at the school.

The notification outlined that the teacher had communicated with a learner outside of school hours via the school messaging platform and personal mobile phone applications, and had invited a small group of select students to a local bowling alley to drink alcohol.

The VIT suspended the teacher’s registration on an interim basis and commenced an investigation into the allegations.

Meanwhile, the Department of Education’s annual report showed incidents of injuries and other hazard-related events, increased by 30 per cent.

This included 23,665 reports in 2022–23.
The report also found that some schools experienced temporary workforce constraints last year due to a sharp rise in student and teacher illness due to COVID-19 and influenza.

It was highlighted that Victoria was experiencing teacher supply pressures.

The Department said challenges relating to teacher shortages were more acute in specialist schools, schools in rural and remote areas, areas of rapid population growth, and specific subject areas such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

“The Department is addressing national teacher workforce shortages for Victoria through a range of initiatives intended to support attraction and retention of the teaching workforce,” the report said.