According to a report by an Education Department, a Tasmanian teacher who conducted blood tests on 19 high school students breached guidelines. The incident happened last month when a teacher at the Dover District High School took blood samples from the students using just two lancets for a science class experiment. These lancets were cleaned between pricks using methylated spirits. These spirits are inadequate when preventing blood borne viral disease like HIV and Hepatitis say experts.
The year eight, nine and 10 students have since been advised to have tests for HIV and Hepatitis. An investigation of the incident was also commissioned. Education minister Lin Thorp has released the results of an investigation into the incident. The results showed that the experiment is not a part of the Tasmanian science curriculum and it breached guidelines banning students from participating in blood-testing activities. Ms Thorp she says the teacher's qualifications is not an issue here. The teacher had a primary qualification in English and drama, but she has initial training in junior secondary science. “What this is saying is that there wasn't clear communication of the correct procedures and they weren't particularly followed in this instance,” she said.
However Liberal's Education spokesman Michael Ferguson thinks the teacher was not adequately qualified for the job. “The government have sponsored an unqualified teacher to be teaching senior science in one of its high schools,” he said. The teacher has said that she is qualified to teach junior secondary science and has a certificate.
Earlier in September, Tasmania's Director of Public Health Roscoe Taylor criticized the Education Department for their slow response in the investigation. “I passed it on immediately to our communicable diseases team who got in touch with education staff. That delay is unacceptable…It really should have been the case that the department recognized this as a more critical incident and actually contacted us for some health advice earlier,” he said.
These issues put aside Tasmania's Education Union's Leanne Wrights feels that guidelines for teaching should be the actual thrust. “Protocol needs to be communicated widely and more thoroughly and there needs to be a strategy to make sure that in subjects such as science that there is mentoring or someone else qualified in the school working with the teacher, if they have to resort to having teachers working outside of their subject area,” she said.
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