Critical failures led to appointment of ministry 'expert'

File photo / Herald on Sunday

A series of "critical failure points" led to a former principal facing serious misconduct charges being appointed as an expert advisor to schools, according to internal Ministry of Education review.

Debroah Mutu was stood down from her role as a Northland school principal in 2007 after failing to act on a student's complaint about inappropriate behaviour from her teacher husband John Mutu.

Mr Mutu was suspended for the 2004 incident, when he visited a 15-year-old student at home, and was found lying on a mattress with her. Following the incident, Mrs Mutu ordered staff to tear up the student's written complaint.

Investigations into the matter were drawn out for some time, until the couple were finally deregistered for serious misconduct and each ordered to pay $20,000 in costs following a Teacher's Council disciplinary tribunal hearing last October.

Last January, while awaiting a Teachers' Council hearing, Mrs Mutu was seconded from Te Runanga Nui to work as a student achievement practitioner, an "expert" adviser to schools.

A ministry review, released under the Official Information Act, said a number of "critical failure points" meant the ministry did not have full information about Mrs Mutu when she was given the job.

"The Ministry was aware around May 2011 that Debroah Mutu had some issues with the board of Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Kaikohe around 2007/08. Yet, there was no attempt too contact the kura to obtain their version of allegations represented by Debroah Mutu," the review said.

Although attempts were made with the Teachers Council to establish the charges Mrs Mutu was facing, the ministry review said inconsistencies between stories were "not pursued sufficiently".

There was also an "over-reliance" on the positive recommendation from Te Runanga Nui, which did not know the full extent of the charges against Mrs Mutu.

The ministry said Mrs Mutu did not fully disclose the seriousness of the charge against her until October 10.

For future secondment processes, the review recommended that conflicting reference information be fully explored until there is a reasonable explanation for the difference, and reference checks by obtained from past employers.

Former Education Minister Anne Tolley came under fire over the issue last year, when she told Parliament on October 6 that no practitioners had been suspended.

Although Mrs Tolley's answer was in line with the advice from the ministry at the time, Labour 's Sue Moroney said she should have corrected the information when the seriousness of Mrs Mutu's charges became clear.

While there was no obligation for a minister to correct information in Parliament if they subsequently found out what they had said was wrong, Ms Moroney said there was an ethical obligation to be honest with the public.