May 15, 2003

Incompetence and the Minister of Education

Not since the days when Bill Vander Zalm was Education Minister has BC seen anything like Christy Clark. She seems to go out of her way to poke the teachers in the eye with a sharp stick, and the BCTF frequently rises to the bait.

One of her latest moves is to change the structure of the College of Teachers so that teachers are no longer a self-regulating profession. The composition of the College will change from 15 teachers and 5 others to 8 teachers and 12 others. It is probably a good thing to have substantial representation on a professional regulatory body from people who are not members of the profession. The NDP increased lay representation on many boards including the College of Physicians and Surgeons. In this case, however, Clark has reduced the professional representation so that it is a minority. Is the Campbell government prepared to extend that principle to other professional regulatory bodies?

On July 31, 2002, "Proposed Changes for Professional Regulation" appeared as a new suite of pages on the Health Planning Minister's website. In a "Message from the Minister", Sindi Hawkins wrote that organizations have until September 16, 2002, to respond to the proposed changes. Legislation will be introduced into the Fall Sitting of the Legislature commencing October 7, 2002." Hawkins' paper discussed amendments to the Health Professions Act and said that "Under the amendments, government will have new powers to enquire into the functioning of a college, and to direct a board of a college to act where it is determined to be necessary. In addition, the government will have the ability to appoint a public administrator to carry out the functions of a board in extraordinary circumstances if it is necessary to protect the public." The Campbell government backed down before it got to the stage of passing the promised amendments! That is one reason why the Ombudsman released a report this month on "Self-Governance in the Health Professions", which supports the watered down amendments to the Health Professions Act introduced May 13th. It appears that the Campbell government doesn't have the will to take on the health professions but it has no qualms about taking on the teachers.

Clark's changes for teachers include requiring the college to prepare an annual report that includes a statement on teacher competence. Clark went farther than her news release when she was interviewed by Peter Warren on CKNW's Rafe Mair show on May 13th. Clark said "Over the last 16 years that the College of Teachers has existed, they have never defined what competency is." She went on to say that "we need to make sure that standard of competency is set, and is well defined and it should be done by the College. She claimed that unlike teachers, doctors, accountants and lawyers have a standard of competency. Not only are those words inflammatory, they are wrong. Colleges and other agencies that regulate professions determine the qualifications that are necessary to enter the profession, including ruling on whether arrivals from other jurisdictions satisfy the provincial requirements, and they adjudicate charges of unprofessional conduct. Those charges frequently occur after criminal or civil actions have resulted in a decision by the courts. Try approaching one of the other Colleges, say the College of Physicians & Surgeons, and asking how many of their members are "competent". They would be insulted, and rightly so. The assumption is that all members are competent unless proven otherwise.

Clark can require the College of Teachers to include a section on competency in its annual report, but the result will be no more than bafflegab about professional development programs. The responsibility for measuring competence and addressing incompetence rests with the employers which are the school boards.

One of the most mischievous moves by Clark is her promise that parents will be allowed to make complaints against teachers directly to the College. Of course, if a teacher has been convicted in a court, that could be done, but then the College wouldn't need the parent's complaint. The danger is that many relatively trivial complaints and disputes will bog down the College. Currently, the College can receive complaints directly from parents but it usually refers them back to the relevant school board which can investigate and, if appropriate, send the complaint back to the College. The role of the employer is do deal with routine disciplinary matters. The role of the College is to determine whether a person should lose their right to practice their profession, the capital punishment of disciplines. It is inappropriate, and disruptive to education, for the Minister of Education to encourage parents to lodge complaints directly with the College of Teachers. Even Bill Vander Zalm was more responsible as a Minister of Education.