Rotorua Daily Post
  • Rotorua Daily Post home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Residential property listings
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Rural
  • Sport

Locations

  • Tauranga
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō & Tūrangi

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales

Weather

  • Rotorua
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Tokoroa
  • Taupō

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Tauranga teacher did students' work for them after cancer sick leave, education council finds

Zizi Sparks
By Zizi Sparks
Multimedia journalist·Bay of Plenty Times·
17 Nov, 2019 02:31 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save
    Share this article
Carel Human was a teacher at Tauranga Boys' College for a decade. Photo / File

Carel Human was a teacher at Tauranga Boys' College for a decade. Photo / File

A Tauranga high school teacher who did students' work for them, gave credits for work that had not been done and gave achieved marks to work not worthy of it, has been censured.

Carel Human, a technology teacher at Tauranga Boys College was censured for serious misconduct and ordered to pay tribunal costs in an Education Council finding released last week .

Human had taught at the college for a decade and taken sick leave in Term 2 of 2016 while he received treatment for kidney cancer. While away his Year 11 engineering class was taught by three relief teachers.

When Human returned in Term 3 he found the class was behind.

On October 11, 2016, the second day of Term 4, Human spent five minutes updating the school's grading database to record the grades of 19 students who had sat a unit standard. All but one was awarded an achieved grade.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Two days later a student reported receiving credits for work he had not completed.

A review of the work of five students in Human's class revealed that, despite being awarded an achieved grade for the Unit Standard by Human, all five students had not completed the minimum work required to be awarded that grade.

The five pieces of work were remarked by another teacher who said the answers marked were, "so far off the mark I couldn't believe it". None of the students met the achieved standard after being remarked.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Two weeks later during an internal moderation it was discovered some of the answers contained in various students' work from February and March had been completed by Human.

According to the finding, five students interviewed during Education Council investigations confirmed the teacher had written answers on their work.

"I didn't really know what to write so he did it for me," a student said.

All up, Human recorded between 3 and 21 per cent of the answers in the five students' workbooks and wrote on the work of 28 per cent of students in the class.

Discover more

Cricket

Baywide cricket rivalry to reach peak once again

31 Oct 07:50 PM
Cricket

Bay of Plenty Cup: Teams confirmed for cup and plate comps

16 Nov 11:40 PM

Smile! Preschoolers come out on top in dental challenge

18 Nov 06:29 PM

When confronted, Human initially said perhaps the student didn't have a pen.

In a written response to the concerns, provided after a meeting with the school principal on November 8, Human said the class was behind in their work when he returned after sick leave.

He told the students "if they try their best, I will be generous in marking their folders". Human said whenever he wrote an answer for a student, that student was in front of him and had provided the information.

In response to questions from the Education Council in March 2018 Human admitted writing answers in students' workbooks to "simplify explaining".

During the course of the Education Council investigation, Human emphasised the students had made little or no progress during the time he was away from school receiving treatment.

During the Education Council hearing, the Complaints Assessment Committee said what Human had done "adversely affected the educational wellbeing of students, reflects adversely on his fitness to be a teacher and risks bringing the teaching profession into disrepute".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Human's counsel said while he acknowledged his actions amounted to serious misconduct, it had occurred during a period of stress and illness.

According to counsel, his motivation was helping students he felt had been disadvantaged by his own illness.

Human resigned from the school in January 2017 and has been re-employed at another school, the principal of which is aware of the issues.

The finding states Human did not want to pursue permanent name suppression and acknowledged "the embarrassment that may be caused to him by the publication of the decision is part of accepting responsibility for his actions".

Human has been censured and ordered to pay $458, 40 per cent of tribunal costs.

His teaching licence is still valid and Human will undergo mentoring, do a course on assessment, moderation, professional boundaries and curriculum planning and delivery and has to show a copy of the decision employers for the next two years.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Human is also unable to apply for or accept any principalship, head of Department position or any position with management responsibility for three years.

Save
    Share this article

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua Daily Post

Four appear in court over man's death at Trigg Ave, Rotorua

Rotorua Daily Post

Twelve charged with murder in Zain Taikato-Fox case

Rotorua Daily Post

Fishing and hunting expo: How a young leukaemia survivor is giving back


Sponsored

Farm plastic recycling: Getting it right saves cows, cash, and the planet

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Rotorua Daily Post

Four appear in court over man's death at Trigg Ave, Rotorua
Rotorua Daily Post

Four appear in court over man's death at Trigg Ave, Rotorua

Charging documents allege they assaulted the man yesterday – investigations continue.

21 Aug 07:00 AM
Twelve charged with murder in Zain Taikato-Fox case
Rotorua Daily Post

Twelve charged with murder in Zain Taikato-Fox case

21 Aug 03:31 AM
Fishing and hunting expo: How a young leukaemia survivor is giving back
Rotorua Daily Post

Fishing and hunting expo: How a young leukaemia survivor is giving back

21 Aug 03:29 AM


Farm plastic recycling: Getting it right saves cows, cash, and the planet
Sponsored

Farm plastic recycling: Getting it right saves cows, cash, and the planet

10 Aug 09:12 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Rotorua Daily Post e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Rotorua Daily Post
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP