The Commission has dismissed an unfair dismissal claim on the basis that it found that a teacher had been negligent in failing to ensure that a student in his class was enrolled in a course and failing to deliver instruction to that student.

The applicant, a computer teacher at a high school, accepted that he did not ensure that the student was enrolled in the course and that he had failed to teach him from February to June 2017. However, the teacher argued that:

• at least part of the period when the student was not enrolled was not his fault, or could not have been avoided by him, because the school changed the registered training organisation which ran the course;
• not allowing students to do private study in his class was “unworkable and totally unjustified” as other teachers were allowed to simply supervise students in their classes while they did “private study”;
• he had been treated unfairly because the principal of the school was biased against him; and
• the applicant had been left to “carry the can” when others had a role in the failure to enrol and teach the student in question.

Commissioner Matthews found that, while the principal and other heads of learning should have examined the deficiencies and addressed the situation, some of the arguments were unsubstantiated and none of them could excuse a failure or diminish the negligence of the teacher to ensure the student was enrolled by mid-year and to teach him.

The application was dismissed.

The decision can be read here.