A former Northland kura principal, recently employed as a specialist adviser to schools, has appeared before the Teachers Council charged with serious misconduct.
The case came to light last week when a Whangarei principal and Labour Party candidate, Pat Newman, challenged the woman's appointment as a student achievement function practitioner.
Sources close to the kura tell Radio New Zealand News that the woman and her husband face charges of serious misconduct relating to complaints made against them in 2007 when they were suspended from the jobs.
They appeared before a disciplinary tribunal in Auckland on Monday. The proceedings of the council are held in private.
Mr Newman says the woman's appointment as a schools adviser is one of a number of recent appointments by the Ministry of Education involving people unfit for those positions.
Political appointments claimed
The Principals Federation accuses the ministry of making political appointments to schools.
President Paul Drummond, who is the head of Tahunanui Primary in Nelson, says the problem is not confined to Northland.
He says he is hearing from schools in other regions that have been assigned senior advisers with no background in education.
Mr Drummond says they are essentially people who support a corporate model for schools obsessed with measuring compliance and competition.
He says the senior advisers are a little like bus drivers advising airline pilots, and they lack credibility.
Labour has filed a complaint with the Speaker about the Minister of Education's handling of questions about the former Northland kura principal.
Education spokesperson Sue Moroney says Anne Tolley denied in Parliament that any of the new advisers had been previously suspended and said extensive background checks had been done on all of them.
Ms Moroney says Mrs Tolley either knowingly misled Parliament or was unable to get her facts straight.
