Two teachers who faced criminal charges arising out of allegations of sexual misconduct against very young children last year were reinstated to their former positions because there was no evidence to prove the claims. This led to their being exonerated of any wrongdoing in the courts.

The disclosure came from the latest Annual Report of the Teaching Service Commission for 2008 that was laid in the Parliament yesterday which also revealed that four officers in the teaching service were dismissed after being found guilty of misconduct. When it came to the situation regarding the allegations of sexual misconduct against the two teachers, however, the Commission stated in its report that this ’requires urgent review and the Commission will be discussing the options available under the regulations for fully investigating allegations of sexual abuse by teachers against children, even when the matter is being pursued in court’.

Neither the teachers nor the schools involved were identified but the Commission explained that out of the ten cases arising out of court charges in 2008, ’two officers were exonerated and eight cases were ongoing’ as it stated it ’continues to be concerned when matters are dismissed for lack of prosecution.’

’The two cases where matters were dismissed for lack of evidence involved allegations of sexual misconduct against very young children. These children, when called upon to give evidence in the matter, find the process to be very traumatising and are quite self-conscious about the matter; moreso when the court takes several years to hear the matter and the children are now in the sensitive teenage years,’ the Teaching Service Commission report stated. It further stated, ’This has resulted in alleged offenders not having to face their accusers and, without any evidence, the Commission had no option but to reinstate the teachers to their former positions.’

In all, there were 55 disciplinary cases (new and ongoing from 2007) which came to the Commission’s attention and, of these, ’30 concerned misconduct for which investigators’ reports were available and, in most cases, disciplinary tribunals were established, ten derived from court charges and 15 related to abandonment of office’, the report stated.