Amendments to Education Act

Central Council, 12 February 2007

Report adopted

As reported to Central Council in November 2006 the Government was proposing legislative changes to the Education Act to enable it to better deal with violent students. This legislation has since been passed and guidelines are now being developed to accompany the legislation.

These guidelines will be progressively developed in consultation with the PSA with the aim of implementing them by Term 2 this year.

The PSA has sighted the first section of the guidelines, which were deficient because of their lack of emphasis on occupational health and safety and in the exclusion of mentioning Teachers Aides who are greatly affected by these issues.

The Association has met with the Department of Education and Training who have acknowledged our concerns and agreed to alter the guidelines to reflect them.

The remainder of the guidelines will be worked on in this way and when complete the Department will send a final draft to the Association for our agreement.