However, in an increasingly litigious age, we need to watch the unsubstantiated claim or unfair assertion, particularly in the vexed area of 'duty of care'. I heard recently of a teacher in a government school sued for sexual harassment for putting a hand on the shoulder of an injured student who had fallen over in the playground. The new 'prohibited persons' legislation is both a protection for parents and a weapon that can be wrongly used. I am always shocked when I hear of parents so casually threatening to sue a school. We must not abuse our rights.
Teachers remain a school's most valuable resource.
Teenage years particularly are notoriously demanding ones. Schools need to think creatively of ways by which teachers can be reinvigorated for the emotional demands of their work and renewed in their sense of vocation. The intake of young people into the teaching profession has declined over the past twenty years and will continue to do so, especially with the imminent retirement of teachers trained in the 1960s. We should encourage some of our best students aspire to teaching as a wise career choice. We should continue to remunerate teachers at a level appropriate to their training and experience.