Probe into touchy teachers: TSC 2024 report reveals 16 sex abuse allegations

Minister of Education Dr Michael Dowlath. - File photo

THERE have been 16 incidents of teachers improperly involved with schoolgirls in the last year, said the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) 2024 Annual Report laid in the House of Representatives on November 21 by Education Minister Dr Michael Dowlath. Under the title of disciplinary matters, the report noted 160 matters referred to the TSC.

It said, "Allegations of misconduct – sexual abuse – 16 matters before the commission."

The other allegations of misconduct were 16 reports of physical abuse, five cases of verbal abuse and 15 matters of punctuality and regularity.

The report also referenced disciplinary matters of 42 cases of job abandonment, 36 matters before the disciplinary tribunal and 14 court matters.

A table of ongoing disciplinary matters before the TSC tribunal listed 13 sexual abuse allegations. These involved five teachers.

The allegations involved two teachers with secondary school pupils and some three teachers allegedly involved in the sexual abuse of primary school girls.

The first alleged perpetrator holds the rank of Teacher I at a primary school. He is alleged to have perpetrated five offences. The report does not state how many girls were victimised or if any of them were repeat victims. The document said his matter is not before the court.

The second alleged perpetrator also held the rank of Teacher I and worked at a primary school. He is accused of one incident of sexual abuse against a female student. Likewise, the document said his case was not before the court.

The third alleged perpetrator was also a Teacher I at a primary school. He was alleged to have committed two incidents against a pupil or pupils. He is not in court.

The fourth alleged perpetrator held the post of Technical Vocational Teacher I at a secondary school. He is alleged to have committed one incident. He is not before the court.

The fifth perpetrator held the rank of Temporary Teacher III at a secondary school. He allegedly committed four acts of sexual misconduct against a female pupil or pupils. He is not in court.

In its report, the TSC said, "The commission notes that there are numerous issues in effectively disposing of disciplinary matters, including the length of time taken for court charges to be determined and the length of time taken before matters are heard before disciplinary tribunals.

"Further, the commission continues to give increased attention to those disciplinary matters involving the abuse of children including physical and sexual abuse."

The report said despite these issues, the TSC continued to work on improving the standards of discipline within the nation’s schools.

"It has proposed that an additional tribunal be established to treat specifically with teaching matters and it is anticipated that this tribunal will become operational in 2025."

Teachers late for school

TSC chairman Elizabeth Crouch referenced the problem, among others, in the chairman's address.

"A further efficiency was sought to treat with the continued high rate of unpunctuality and irregularity among officers, the practice of corporal punishment and the sexual and verbal abuse of pupils.

"Important new considerations to treat with this malaise included a proposal to establish a distinct tribunal to address only teaching matters. This additional resource will require more funding and formal arrangements were put in place for this new arrangement to be implemented in 2025."

The report also identified 308 teachers who reached late for work, namely 277 in secondary schools and 31 in primary. TT has roughly 2,000 secondary school teachers and 14,000 in primary school.

"The number of teachers who were late for work in the 1,000 to 1,999, 2,000 to 2,999 and 3,000 to 3,999 late minutes’ categories for the period 2024, reveal that late coming was more prevalent amongst teachers in secondary schools than those in primary schools," the TSC report said.

"A total of ten per cent of teachers in (secondary) schools fell within this category, whilst no teachers in primary schools were late for work in excess of 4,000 minutes."

TTUTA to investigate report

Education Minister Dr Michael Dowlath did not respond to requests for comment up to press time.

TT Unified Teachers Association president Crystal Ashe said he did not want to comment on the matter as he had not seen the report.

“I don’t have knowledge of these things at this point in time. I will look into it before making a comment. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.”

With respect to teachers being late for school, he said there were structures in place to deal with the issue.

“There are structures in place at the schools at the level of the principal to deal with such matters.”

Teaching Service Commission chairman Dr Elizabeth Crouch, speaking to Newsday via phone on December 17, said the existing tribunals are shared by all commissions so are heavily worked. She said the tribunal to deal only with teaching matters was being worked on.

TSC: All due process followed

Asked whether the teachers would have been suspended or other action taken against them, she said discipline was a long process.

“Once the ministry (of education) brings to the commission a matter, it goes through a process and at each stage we follow the Public Service Regulations, which the teaching service has adopted. They are very clear on each step that has to be taken in any disciplinary matter.”

She said teachers being before the court was a separate issue from the discipline administered to teachers by the commission.

“There are teachers who are before the court, they have done criminal matters and they appear before the magistrates court and that is a separate process involving the teacher and the court. But when a matter is brought to the commission for the commission to look at, we follow the public service regulations.

“Sometimes a teacher can have a matter before the court as well as that teacher would have been brought to the attention of the commission, but usually the commission would wait for the court matter to take its course, so you don’t have two things going on the same time.”

“Anything that is a criminal matter that has been brought to the attention of the court and the person has been charged, then the court proceedings deal with that. But when there is something that happens in a school or something happens to a teacher that brings the service into disrepute, the ministry makes the recommendation to the commission to have the matter investigated and all due process is followed.”

(with reporting by Paula Lindo)