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Figures show pupils are not being protected from incompetent teachers
Think-tank, Policy Exchange, has released figures which suggest that pupils are not being protected from incompetent teachers.
Employers (in most cases the local education authority but sometimes the school itself) are legally obliged to refer teachers who have been dismissed on grounds of incompetence to the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE). They are also supposed to refer cases in which a teacher left a school voluntarily but would have been dismissed if they had not. If they decide that further action should be taken, the GTCE then has the power to: issue a reprimand to the teacher; attach conditions to a teacher’s registration (e.g. further training) or remove a teacher from the register either temporarily or permanently.
However, since the GTCE took responsibility for regulating the teaching profession in June 2001, almost two-thirds (97 of 150) of Local Education Authorities in England have not referred a single case to the GTCE on grounds of incompetence. A further 27 have referred just one case, Essex and Nottinghamshire are the only authorities to refer more than 10. Other employers of teachers have referred just nine cases in a little under seven years.
In the 80 months to January 2008 the total number of incompetence referrals is just 135, on average 20 a year. Of the 135 referrals, 60 incompetence hearings have taken place to date, with 46 resulting in a conviction and disciplinary order. Of these, just eight teachers were barred from the profession and 10 suspended from the register.
Author of the report and Head of Policy Exchange’s Education Unit, Sam Freedman, said: “No-one believes there have been just 46 incompetent teachers operating since 2001. There are many more but they often resign when threatened with a capability review.”
The GTCE and the Government are aware of this problem and the GTCE is engaged in research to find out why numbers of referrals are so low.
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