Choudhary Ashraf: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Choudhary Ashraf: Education Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 March 2010. Volume:661;Page:9827. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY (Labour) 
: 
 First of all by way of preamble to this debate I say that children are the most important asset in our lives. Children are our future. As a parent I can say that one of the main things we think about when children go to school is whether they will be safe. 
Hon Rodney Hide 
: Tell that to Charles. 
Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY 
: I will not comment on that I say to Mr Rodney Hide. I think it is important to realise that when our children go to school they should be safe and they should have an education that is of a high standard. 
I also say at this stage that although I am not currently a member of the Education and Science Committee I was a member of that committee for the last two terms and I enjoyed every bit of the work that I did in that committee. I certainly appreciated in the last term the contribution made by Mr Peachey and Colin King in the committee. They had a positive attitude at that time when I was the chair of the committee. 
I would like to comment on information sharing. In a way talking about this issue traverses the comments that have been made before but I think it is important to do so. It reminds me of some years ago when there was an incident at a high school involving one of the teachers. I recall he was teaching chemistry. It was found out after a few years that he did not even have any qualifications to teach chemistry. That teacher was found out and of course deregistered. But it was amazing that in those days it was quite possible for teachers to get through the system and be registered without even having a good background check whether it was a security check or a police investigation in respect of qualifications. But now I am delighted with this bill which is pretty much a bipartisan bill. I am delighted that most of the parties support this bill. It is great that we support this bill. 
In terms of information matching it is important that teachers have proper qualifications—teaching licences or certificates if you like—to ensure that we have properly qualified teachers at the front of the classrooms and also to ensure that no schools are employing teachers illegally and without reference to their proper qualifications. It is also important to the maintenance of standards of education that we have teachers with proper qualifications and that it is well known within the Ministry of Education as well as at schools that there are proper teachers doing the teaching in schools. 
Secondly I will talk briefly about police vetting. As I said earlier it is important for us to know that our children are safe at school and that teachers staff and any contractors who are working there are properly vetted before they are allowed to come into contact with students and pupils. I am particularly delighted that with this three-way involvement of schools the Teachers Council and the police that issue has been sorted out and that now schools can approach the police directly rather than having to go through the Teachers Council to ensure that the proper vetting of contractors and people who are involved in teaching is done.