Blue Card: Working with Childen Check.

Australians have this issue with Identity Theft, as well as Privacy of the Individual. Whereas, in nations like Singapore, as well as Malaysia, we really do not care two hoots about such issues.

In Malaysia, the trend is unless, if I were to write something bad about a company, and put out their full name, and defame them, would I then get into trouble. You can see why it is an issue that partially affects why Australians don't blog. (Apart from the fact that not many Australians I have met ever even heard of blogging to begin with!). I am not really sure if it is because they don't like keeping journals, or they totally dislike writing!

Anyway, enclosed above is my BLUE CARD! If you were wondering how it looks like, the picture of my card above will give you a rather good idea. I have taken out my Last Name, my signature (yes, it is printed on the card!), as well as my registration number.

If an adult does not have a Blue Card, he or she is not allowed to work in the state of Queensland, Australia. This applies to all citizens, permanent residents, international students, local students or anyone, who wants to work with children, regardless of whether at school, the church group, paid employment or volunteer work, or private childcare.

When a child first enters school (or playgroup) in Australia, the parents will sign a letter stating that they give authorization for their child to be observed. In a way, it a procedure that will avoid trouble with legislation, and to provide documented evidence in the event of a disagreement (or trouble of any sorts).

Us malaysians (or singaporeans for that matter) are probably not aware of such issues as it is not really practised locally. Of course, if you are doing a correspondence course with a foreign educational institution, they will normally remind Education students to do just that.

I remember asking a parent to look at a parent authorization letter before I wanted to do an observation of her child in mid-2005, and she was wondering what it was about. *Lol*