Teacher was doing business during class time

A teacher used a school laptop and other equipment to access Facebook and do other personal business on school time. Photo / Thinkstock

When he was supposed to be teaching a class, an Auckland primary school teacher instead managed his family's cleaning business and bought a house.

Ravinesh Chand, of Colwill School in Massey, used a school laptop and other equipment to access Facebook and do other personal business on school time.

He also altered his car registration to make it appear current when it had in fact expired two years before.

Mr Chand argued his actions, while inappropriate, were not the serious misconduct as alleged in the charges he faced before the Teachers' Disciplinary Tribunal. The tribunal agreed.

"In our view, this case is one where the teacher's conduct amounts to misconduct but we do not think it meets the test for serious misconduct," tribunal chairman Kenneth Johnston said at a hearing in Wellington today.

Mr Chand will be censured and a copy of that will be placed on his record.

Teachers Council's complaints assessment committee lawyer Stefan Kaminski told the tribunal Mr Chand's computer records showed him logging into Xero accountancy software during class time.

"Mr Chand's obviously doing his books while sitting in class. That's not just the sort of flagrant swapping of emails with friends which mightn't take much attention. That's a business pursuit for which we can expect him to be fully engaged," Mr Kaminski said.

"The core of the misconduct was the deprivation suffered by the students."

Such conduct was viewed by employers as stealing time and, in doing so, Mr Chand has neglected his pupils.

Mr Kaminski said Mr Chand also had a previous criminal conviction for falsifying a taxi log book, which he hadn't learnt from.

Mr Kaminski asked the tribunal to censure Mr Chand and even consider cancelling his teaching certificate.

Mr Chand didn't attend today's hearing because he was unwell, but his lawyer Fran Renton said he was taking steps to change and was making sure the cleaning business was run from home.

Changing his car's rego was not criminal and did not affect Mr Chand's fitness to teach, Ms Renton said.

She argued for suppression of Mr Chand's name, but the tribunal refused to make an order.

School principal Robert Taylor said he opposed suppression because he wanted Colwill to be known as a school that dealt with problems, and it was unlikely the children's education would be affected by publicising the matter.

"There's more potential for it to be disrupted if Mr Chand's in front of them."

Mr Taylor told the tribunal about further concerns the school held about Mr Chand using his cell phone in class and deleting his internet browser history from the school laptop.

He later told NZME. he was disappointed with the tribunal's decision.

"I would have thought that the tribunal's role was to make sure the quality of the profession was being upheld beyond reproach and that's not what I saw happen today."