Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Background Checks on Teachers - Advantages and Disadvantages

As parents, it is your duty to ensure that your child is kept safe at all times. This includes when he is at school, learning and interacting with teachers and classmates. Most of us think that once a child is inside a classroom, there is hardly any possibility of harm. However, it is important to know that sometimes the very people you expect to give good education and provide a safe learning environment to your kid are the ones who endanger the life and welfare of your little one.

Most parents leave it to the school to do employee background check on teachers. But sometimes this is not enough especially when it comes to some schools who are not that serious in conducting accurate and reliable background searches on their teachers. In this case, it is up to you the parent to do your own investigation to ensure the safety of your child.

However, you should know that conducting background checks on teachers have both its advantages and disadvantages, which you should be familiar with so you can make an informed decision of whether to undertake this procedure or not.


Advantages:

1. A background check ensures that a teacher has no criminal records.

Your child's safety is your number one concern and you certainly do not want a teacher who has been involved with cases of sexual abuse, kidnapping or acts of violence to be the one educating your child.

2. A background check helps prevent resume falsification.

This will help you stay away from people who are claiming to have graduated from this top university or have worked with children for a number of years. You want your kid to be taught by a competent teacher and not a pretentious one.

3. A background check provides medical records.

Medical records reveal physical and mental health of a teacher. This way, you will be able to know if your child's teacher is both physically and mentally fit to educate your little one.

4. A background check helps you stay away from drug users.

Drug use can alter a person's behavior and perception and can result in emotional and psychological instability. Because of this, it is very important that you are able to keep your child away from teachers who have been involved with drug use because they may possibly inflict harm on him.


Disadvantages:

1. A background check can be costly.

Hiring a reliable and efficient background checking company to do a background search on your child's teachers means money out of your pocket.

2. A background check can be time consuming.

The process takes quite some time and sometimes it is not advisable to wait for the background check results before you enroll your kid into a certain school.

3. A background check can have negative effect on people.

If you conduct a background search on a teacher, he or she may be insulted, and may think that you do not trust him or her. This may affect the teacher-student relationship he or she has with your child.

Doing background searches on teachers have its pros and cons but at the end of the day, your child's safety will still be the top priority and that the benefits of a background check outweigh the drawbacks.

For more tips and information about employee background check.

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