WA Teacher Unfairly Dismissed over NAPLAN
Friday 5 February 2016 @ 9.55 a.m. | Industrial Law
The Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission has ruled in a favour of Western Australia based teacher finding that she had been unfairly dismissed from her work in the case of Hislop v Department of Education [2016] WAIRC 40.
Sharon Hislop, a former teacher at Wundowie Primary School east of Perth, had her employment terminated after allegedly assisting a third grade student in a National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) test.
Background
Ms Hislop was accused of approaching a student with special needs during the test and indicating the correct answers to the student. The Department of Education further accused Ms Hislop of pointing out to other students the correct answers to circle and explained words that they did not understand. According to Commissioner Pamela, the investigation into her alleged misconduct had been so tainted and flawed that it could not be relied upon. Furthermore, the testimony given by the Education Assistant who was there in the classroom when the test was administered was also unreliable.
Investigation
The investigation had failed to take into consideration that the NAPLAN test had a specific practice section that allowed for Ms Hislop to interact with the students in the manner described. Also, the investigation was conducted on eight year olds almost five weeks after the test period in which a number of other tests also took place and the children were unable to distinguish between each test instance in their responses. The Education Assistant’s evidence was held unreliable after she admitted to being unfamiliar with the resting regime and that she had guessed the twenty minute extra time.
The Commission ultimately found that Ms Hislop should be reinstated in her former position and that she should be given the 12 months pay she had lost following her dismissal.
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