Conflict of interest

[TheEagle]

Hey guys, sorry if I sound fuming but I am really upset


 I am in year 12 completing VCE. I have encountered a few issues throughout the year. My chemistry teacher has been tutoring students on the weekend which I have heard is against the regulations - i.e: conflict of interest. As a result, he favours those who attend his classes and provide them with higher grades. I have been vastly affected by such favouritism to the extent where I no longer want to complete the unit. This partiality begun during units 1/2 in year 11 where he had begun the private tuition at his home. He had also formed close relationships with specific students who provide him with supplies outside school and in return grants them with the higher marks. In total, we have had 2 SACS (both of which were marked openly) - both included students to create a model, logbook and report. We have received the marks for the first one, however, we are yet to receive the second.

Can someone help me by referring me to the right person to lodge a complaint?

[JerryMouse2019]

Hi TheEagle,

It would be best to send an email straight away to whoever is in charge of the science department of your school. In the email, tell the science department head everything that you've seen and heard. Make sure that you list every single detail about what your chemistry teacher is doing. Tell them why you are concerned. Also tell them to keep you updated on what happens to the chemistry teacher. This isn't fair to you and it isn't fair to anyone else in your class. If they do not respond to you asap, take your complaint to the head of your year level and try again.

Some Advice:

You want to get the most out of your final year and this is the only way to do it. You're not going to get another chance at year 12 so if something isn't right in your school then complain about it.

Good luck with year 12,

Kind Regards
JerryMouse2019

[TheEagle]

Hi TheEagle,

It would be best to send an email straight away to whoever is in charge of the science department of your school. In the email, tell the science department head everything that you've seen and heard. Make sure that you list every single detail about what your chemistry teacher is doing. Tell them why you are concerned. Also tell them to keep you updated on what happens to the chemistry teacher. This isn't fair to you and it isn't fair to anyone else in your class. If they do not respond to you asap, take your complaint to the head of your year level and try again.

Some Advice:

You want to get the most out of your final year and this is the only way to do it. You're not going to get another chance at year 12 so if something isn't right in your school then complain about it.

Good luck with year 12,

Kind Regards
JerryMouse2019

Thank you JerryMouse2019!

I am afraid if nothing happens to the teacher that he will mark me harshly and see me as an outlier.

[Justin_L]

Hey TheEagle,

Just as a quick add on to what JerryMouse2019 said, I would recommend CCing your Deputy and Year Advisor as well, just to cover yourself and make the complaint isn't just ignored or swept under the rug. If possible, I would recommend talking to someone at the school you trust, who will be able to give you more relevant and informed advice about how to approach this.

You should also definitely consider the impact this might have on you, and how to approach this without causing conflict between you and your teacher.

[S_R_K]

A few general thoughts:

1) There's nothing wrong with a teacher providing additional classes for students in his classes, provided that (i) it's free, (ii) it's optional, and (iii) it's available for all students in the cohort at that school.

2) By "optional", it's important that no content is taught that is not taught in class; no official assessments are done; no penalties are applied to students who do not attend.

With respect to your situation: it will be important for you to distinguish between two possible explanations for the higher grades of the other students: (i) they perform better because of the extra learning they have done, (ii) a lack of objectivity from the teacher. You'll need to have evidence that it's not the former.

With all that said:

This partiality begun during units 1/2 in year 11 where he had begun the private tuition at his home. He had also formed close relationships with specific students who provide him with supplies outside school

This makes my skin crawl, and if this accurate, I would be concerned not only about this teacher's partiality, but also his suitability to be working with teenagers.

[TheEagle]

A few general thoughts:

1) There's nothing wrong with a teacher providing additional classes for students in his classes, provided that (i) it's free, (ii) it's optional, and (iii) it's available for all students in the cohort at that school.

2) By "optional", it's important that no content is taught that is not taught in class; no official assessments are done; no penalties are applied to students who do not attend.

With respect to your situation: it will be important for you to distinguish between two possible explanations for the higher grades of the other students: (i) they perform better because of the extra learning they have done, (ii) a lack of objectivity from the teacher. You'll need to have evidence that it's not the former.

With all that said:

This makes my skin crawl, and if this accurate, I would be concerned not only about this teacher's partiality, but also his suitability to be working with teenagers.

My response to those:

1) His classes tick all those boxes, but I just choose not to attend them because I don't personally like his teaching style, so instead I have a physics tutor who I relate with.


2) From the word of my classmates, they have told me that they are done with unit 3 whereas we are still mid way unit 3 in class. Therefore, he sees those who attend his classes as the 'advanced' ones who have completed the whole unit before the others, however, he does not know that there are other students in the class (not only me) who do not attend his classes but are just as ahead, if not more. This saddens me as myself and a few others are spending a load of $$ to our tutors to learn the content, just to be seen as less than his chosen students.



I can almost assure you that it's his lack of objectivity because our first SAC required us to make a model of the same type (literally the same task for everyone), yet those who attend his classes (roughly 5 people) all achieved the top ranks respectively, i.e: rank 1, rank 2, rank 3, rank 4, rank 5. He even admitted that my work was very detailed but still put me as rank 6 (it's his first year teaching a 3/4, he has no physics background whatsoever + he doesn't know the effects of ranking on your study score). Just to confirm this, I asked a friend of mine who is rank 3 who attends his classes if we could compare our reports for the model after we submit it. There was a clear contrast between our work, of which I don't want to sound egotistical but mine was a lot more detailed (he even admitted lol).