Teachers gifted luxury presents like jewellery and Yves Saint Laurent perfume a worrying trend which experts warn effectively amounts to bribing teachers.
Teachers have accepted jewellery valued at $700, spa treatments valued at $250 and a $100 bottles of Yves Saint Laurent Perfume Baby Doll perfume, school documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph through Government Information Public Access (GIPA) rules reveal.
Parents are tossing in together and giving teachers Westfield Gift vouchers and Visa gift cards — and in some cases simply a wad of $300 cash.
This is despite a Department of Education edict which says they must not accept “obviously expensive gifts”.
“You must never ask for money gifts or benefits and you must never accept any offer of money, or accept a gift greater than a nominal value,” the ministerial guideline says.
A Department of Education spokesman said he interpreted that to mean teachers couldn’t expressly ask for gifts.
“There is no ministerial directive prohibiting teachers from accepting gifts valued at more than $50,” he said.
The ministerial edict states: “It would not be acceptable to receive gifts or benefits in the following situations … a parent gives a teacher an obviously expensive gift — e.g. jewellery.”
However, the documents show the gifts received by educators included a parent giving a teacher a $100 gift voucher for Reading Cinemas for their birthday while another was given a $100 Swarovski bracelet as a wedding gift.
Another parent gave a teacher $700 worth of Pandora Jewellery.
Teaching method lecturer at UTS Mohan Dhall said extravagant gifts “absolutely blurred the line” for teachers.
“If someone is accepting something for $700 how could it not shape how they view and how they treat that person,” he said.
We recently shared how one Mum was shamed for refusing to contribute to expensive Christmas gift for her child’s Kindergarten teacher. Read more on that HERE.
Here is What You Need to Know About Gifting Your Child’s Teacher This Christmas
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