Teachers Registration Board of the Northern Territory
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Employers' obligations under the Act

Teacher registration

Only teachers who are registered or authorised by the Teacher Registration Board of the Northern Territory may be employed as teachers in the Northern Territory.

Under the provisions of section 72 of the Teacher Registration (Northern Territory) Act an employer must not knowingly employ or continue to employ a person to teach in a school in the Territory unless:

  • the person is a registered teacher; or
  • the person has been granted interim registration; or
  • the employer has been granted authorisation in relation to the person.

The penalty for employing an unregistered person is 50 penalty points (currently $6,500). [s. 72]

Notifications

Under the provisions of section 52 of the Act an employer must notify the Board of:

  • the dismissal by the employer, and the grounds for dismissal, of a registered teacher or person teaching under authorisation;
  • the resignation of a person who is a registered teacher, or who has been teaching under an authorisation, who was employed by the employer, in circumstances that call into question the fitness of the person to teach; and
  • any action taken by the employer against a person who is a registered teacher, or who has been teaching under an authorisation, in relation to the person’s serious misconduct, serious incompetence or lack of fitness to teach.

The notification must be made to the Board without delay and within 28 days of the dismissal, resignation or action. [s. 52]

Assistance to the Board during an inquiry

Under section 62(2) of the Act, an employer must provide to the Board any information that is reasonably requested by the Board in relation to a person who is the subject of an Inquiry.

Under section 62(3) of the Act, no civil or criminal proceedings lie against a person who provides information to the Board or a committee of inquiry in good faith about the conduct of a person who is or was a teacher or in relation to whom an authorisation is or was in effect. [s. 62]

Annual returns

Under the provisions of section 78(1) of the Act an employer of teachers must provide the Board, by the end of the first term of each school year, with a return in the approved form of all persons teaching at the employer's school (or schools) as at 1 March of that year.

The return must include all persons who have been called on to act as relief teachers during the school year to 1 March.