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RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Police officer who beat his children with a belt subject to another employment process
The senior police officer has been subject to investigations after allegations surfaced that he had physically disciplined his children using a belt. (File pic) Photo: Richard Tindiller A senior police officer who admitted to beating his children with a belt is the subject of another "employment process," police have confirmed. The staffer, referred to as Officer A, was the subject of investigations by police and the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) after allegations surfaced in July 2023 that he had physically disciplined his children using a belt. Officer A was not charged due to insufficient admissible evidence, but was censured for serious misconduct. In February this year the case was made public when the IPCA released its findings into the allegations, describing the sanction as "grossly inadequate". In response to questions from RNZ, a police spokesperson confirmed on Thursday they were aware of a report in relation to Officer A and an "employment process" was under way. "It's not appropriate to share any more detail about that at this time." An IPCA spokesperson confirmed the authority was notified of a complaint made to police about an incident that occurred on 23 May. "We have written to the complainant with our decision." The IPCA declined to say what the complaint was, or what the authority's decision was. IPCA chairperson Judge Kenneth Johnston, KC released his findings in relation to Officer A in February. Inquiries began on 28 July 2023 after Officer A, a senior police officer who was at the time the officer-in-charge at a North Island location, came to the attention of police and Oranga Tamariki when it was reported that he had physically disciplined his children using a belt. Police advised the authority and initiated an investigation along with Oranga Tamariki. Police and Oranga Tamariki spoke to the children in preliminary interviews, which cannot be used as evidence. OT ended their involvement when they completed a risk assessment and concluded that the children were not likely to face further harm. When asked by police, Officer A and his wife refused to give permission for their children to be interviewed for evidential purposes. After OT withdrew, police chose not to pursue other avenues to interview the children. Later, Officer A elected not to make a statement to police. This brought the criminal investigation to an end as there was insufficient admissible evidence. The IPCA commenced an independent investigation and interviewed Officer A and his wife. No information gathered by the IPCA is admissible in court. Officer A admitted to the IPCA that he "physically disciplined his children". "He said that on two different occasions he had used a webbing belt on them, striking their buttocks and upper legs." One occasion was on his two daughters (one was a young teenager and the other under 10 years old) because they had been fighting, including in church, and about a year earlier on his son (also under 10) as he had been "naughty". He said both he and his wife tried to be "good parents" but on occasion physical discipline was needed to "reset" the children. He acknowledged he was aware physically disciplining children was no longer protected by the law. The IPCA said the officer couldn't rely on the defence in section 59 of the Crimes Act, which provides that reasonable force on a child may be justified in certain circumstances. "Accordingly, our view is that the officer's use of a belt to discipline his children constituted three offences of assault on a child." However, it did not make any recommendations to police because they had already concluded criminal and employment processes. Police completed an employment process which resulted in the officer being censured for serious misconduct. "Inexplicably, one of the mitigating factors police took into account when considering the appropriate sanction, was that they had not initiated criminal proceedings," Johnston said. "In our assessment, the sanction (which we accept was ultimately a matter for the decision maker) was grossly inadequate given the nature of the officer's actions and the officer's seniority, position and level of responsibility." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
21-04-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Fears new teacher maths requirement will halve enrolments, worsen shortages
Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller Teacher education providers warn there is strong evidence the timing of a new maths test for would-be primary teaching students will halve enrolments in some courses, worsening teacher shortages. The Literacy and Numeracy for Adults Assessment Tool (LNAAT) will become a pre-requisite for entry to one-year English-medium postgraduate programmes next year, and for multi-year programmes such as Bachelor's degrees in 2027. Students who enrolled this year in English-medium primary teaching courses would have to pass the one-hour test, which was developed for the Tertiary Education Commission and administered by the Council for Educational Research, before they graduated. The change was prompted by the government's push to raise maths achievement. Lecturers told RNZ the LNAAT was a good measure of teachers' maths ability but making it a condition of entry rather than requiring students pass the test during their course of study was a mistake. Their fears were based on Otago University's 15-year history of using the LNAAT with its students. Otago's associate dean of initial teacher education, Naomi Ingram, said the test's content was very close to the knowledge primary school teachers required and much closer than the requirements of NCEA Level 2 maths which was originally expected to be the benchmark for entry. But she said requiring students pass the test before they were accepted to a teacher education programme was a bad idea. "We've got 15 years of data to show that the first time they attempt this assessment our primary teachers in our initial teacher education programme, about half of them pass it," Ingram said. "Some of these people might be older students who just haven't done fractions for a while or there might be people that have genuine gaps in their knowledge. "It's going to have a massive impact on teacher supply and teacher supply is a problem in primary so I'm very concerned about that." Ingram said by the end of Otago's three-year degree all students who successfully completed all other aspects of the programme passed the test, though some required tuition or resources to get there. She said students enrolled in one-year, postgraduate teaching courses tended to do a lot better in the test. Ingram said students tended to struggle most with "proportional reasoning" involving fractions, finding percentages, place values and metric conversion. Education Ministry figures showed in recent years more than half of the graduates from primary teaching programmes were from Bachelor's degree programmes and in 2023, the most recent year for which statistics were available, the figure was 70 percent. Anthony Fisher from Early Childhood New Zealand Te Rito Maioha said its degree students would attempt the test next semester but students in its one-year programme had already sat it, with most passing. Fisher said the high pass rate was probably because the one-year students already had a degree. "They've come in with a prior degree so their level of mathematics is probably at a different level to some people coming into a three-year programme," he said. Fisher said making the test an enrolment requirement would lower student numbers. "As an entry requirement it's definitely going to have an impact on students. I think particularly a number of students who have I suppose what we could term maths anxiety," he said. "It will be a definite barrier I think for some students coming into primary teaching." The chair of universities' Council of Deans of Education, Joce Nuttall from the University of Canterbury said universities had pre-entry literacy and numeracy tests for years and its members "absolutely support" the need for graduates to be mathematically competent. Nuttall said students who failed the test on their first attempt this year would get extra support and the university was confident all students would pass it before graduation. "What we're more concerned about is that students who have to sit the test before they get into teacher education from next year. If they don't pass the test we may lose them," she said. Nuttall said deans of education hoped the Teaching Council would change the rules. "We'd really like to see the test incorporated within our courses rather than something that's required prior to entry. That would bring us in line with very similar testing systems in Australia," she said. The Teaching Council said the decision to make the test a prerequisite for enrolment was reached after consultation. It said candidates would be allowed two attempts at the assessment, the second time a month after the first. In addition, providers could seek exemptions allowing them to offer post-entry assessment for candidates who met conditions such as being strong candidates in other respects. "Partly due to these mitigations, we expect that the mathematics requirement is likely to have only a modest impact on supply of candidates entering English-medium primary ITE programmes," it said. "We will, however, work with the Ministry of Education as the mathematics entry requirement policy is implemented to achieve the best possible understanding of teacher supply impacts and we will consider changes to the policy settings if needed." The council said it initially considered allowing entry for students who had NCEA maths credits at Level 2. "Concerns were, however, raised by sector experts about unintended consequences from the use of this measure. In addition, we had already identified that another assessment would need to be available since it would not be fair or possible to rely solely on a candidate's school record," it said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
21-04-2025
- Automotive
- RNZ News
Easter road toll rises to four after Waikato crash
Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller The Easter holiday road toll has risen to four after a person was killed in a two-vehicle crash in Mangakino on Easter Monday. Two others were seriously injured in the crash on Waipapa Road in the Waikato town of Mangakino just after 4pm. The road remains closed and police want motorists to avoid the area. Earlier this afternoon, the toll increased to three after a two-car crash in central Taranaki. Police say emergency services were alerted at 2.30pm to the crash on State Highway 3. It occurred on Wharekauri Road and Mangamaio Road. One person was killed, two people suffered serious injuries and two others have moderate injuries, a police spokesperson said. The road is closed and motorists are asked to take alternative routes where possible. The NZ Transport Agency said via X the Serious Crash Unit was attending and its investigation might take several hours. SERIOUS CRASH - UPDATE 3:20PM The road is now CLOSED between Mangamaio Rd and Pukeruhe Rd due to a serious crash. SCU will be attending the scene and their investigations can take several hours. Continue to follow emergency services on-site or delay your journey. ^EH The official holiday period runs through until 6am on Tuesday. The first Easter road victim died at the scene of a single vehicle crash on State Highway 12 in Ruawai in Northland on Good Friday. In the second incident, one person died in a crash involving a car and cyclist at Haumoana in Hawke's Bay on Saturday morning. Last year, seven people died on the roads over the same long weekend, up from only one in 2023. This weekend has been marked by high winds and heavy rain brought by ex-tropical cyclone Tam, with Civil Defence authorities warning drivers to take extra care. MetService is forecasting the bad weather to ease from here on . Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
