While NESA has extended the deadline for attaining Proficient Teacher status, delays abound; and make sure you complete your professional development.
Delays for Provisionally Accredited Teachers
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, NESA has temporarily extended the time for Provisionally Accredited early childhood teachers to become Proficient (normally three years if employed full time or five years if employed part time).
The IEU is aware that a number of members haven’t been able to have their Accreditation Supervisor observe their practice. There is also some inconsistency in the timing of allocating an Accreditation Supervisor to a Provisionally Accredited Teacher.
If you are experiencing delays to the finalisation of your Proficient Teacher Accreditation or have any questions about the process, we recommend you contact the union for assistance.
Some early childhood teachers working for large employers that allocate internal Accreditation Supervisors have experienced lengthy delays from the time their documentation was submitted to their Accreditation Supervisor and the date these were uploaded to NESA. In one instance this initial delay was more than four months.
Once the evidence was finally uploaded, NESA requested the Accreditation Supervisor submit the Observation Report and the Final Supervisor Report. After more than three months, the member contacted the IEU because the Accreditation Supervisor had still not responded to this request, nor had classroom observation of the Provisional Teacher taken place.
This seven-month delay is a breach of NESA’s Proficient Teacher Accreditation Policy, which states that the Supervisor Report should be submitted within 21 days of the teacher’s evidence being received.
Maintaining accreditation – Proficient Teachers
The IEU is aware that a considerable number of Proficient Teachers in early childhood, whose first maintenance period finishes in July 2021, have not completed the required 100 hours of professional development. According to NESA’s Maintenance of Teacher Accreditation Policy clause 6.1:
A teacher will fail to maintain their accreditation if:
• their practice does not meet the applicable Standards and/ or
• they fail to complete the professional development requirements by the end of the maintenance period.
If a teacher fails to meet the professional development requirements, NESA can revoke or suspend the teacher’s accreditation 14 days after the end of their maintenance period.
In 2020, the IEU is offering early childhood teacher members free access to more than 70 hours of NESA Registered professional development via The IEU Zone (theieuzone.org.au/) and TLN. We invite you to explore these options to maintain your accreditation.