12/22/2008

What is the point of the General Teaching Council

The Labour government decided a few yeas ago to introduce a new layer of bureaucracy in to the teaching profession by launching the General Teaching Council. This move was never wanted by teachers, there was no clear need for such a body, and nobody knew what the GTC would actually do. However, this did not deter Labour, and we now have had a GTC for about 8 years.

The problem is 9 years on that teachers still cannot name one thing the GTC has achieved despite it receiving millions of pounds each years which could have been spent on education rather than meetings, hospitality, hotel fees and the gravy train that goes with such an organisation. I did have a colleague who was on the GTC and he raved about the hotels they stay in for meetings. Beleive me, its not you local travel lodge.

Talking last night at our Christmas meal, one teacher commented that she read that the GTC wants to have the right to remove the qualified teacher status (QTS) from teachers who fails to act as role models. They apparently want to have the right to remove QTS from a teacher who embarrasses themselves on a hen night or has one to many on a stag do. The GTC, in effect, wants to neuter teachers and turn them in to robots who never go out. Yet this is the same GTC that claims to be fighting for teachers rights.

Sadly the GTC is nothing more than a chocolate fireguard. It serves no purpose other than to discipline (and this could be done by someone else) and if the teaching profession itself cannot name one thing the GTC has achieved on behalf of teachers, than is there any point in it ?

5 comments:

Letters From A Tory said...

The GTC is supposed to look after disciplining teachers and yet I read recently that it has only struck off one teacher in the entire country for misconduct or incompetence.

Doesn't exactly scream 'success', does it.

Anonymous said...

If you think teachers should not risk losing their QTS if they behave badly in public, do you think we should not expect them to be role models at all? Many children are deprived of any positive role models in their families and communities. Are we to say that they should have none at school either?

Telling someone they should not place themselves in the small minority who become obnoxiously drunk in public, is hardly "turning them into robots who never go out".

Nich Starling said...

Anonymous, you seem to think the GTC is in place to discipline teachers for conducting themselves in accordance with the law. This hardly seems right.

How many other profession do this ? Doctors ? Police ? Lawyers ? Exactly. What would be next ? Teachers who like a bet ? Teachers who commit foul in a weekend football match ?

I once got sent off playing football and someone on my teacm shouted out "he's a teacher - he should know better". The point is, we are all human.

The question for teachers what has the GTC acheived except from levelling threats at teachers ? Nobody can name a single success, and that highlights their failure.

Null said...

@ Anonymous, a teacher's job is to teach. It is the parent's job to act as a positive role model to their children.

The fact that this government is attempting to subsume a parent's responsibility into state control, does not make it right.

Of course, in an ideal world, it would be better if a teacher did not get plastered in an Indian restaurant, but we live in the real world. Things happen in our private lives which lead to unusual behaviour.

This need for control over the private lives of publicly employees is wrong, and the sooner we stand tell them to take a hike, the better.

Anonymous said...

It is the same for doctors, nurses and lawyers. Bringing the profession into disrepute is a serious matter and can land them in front of their professional bodies. Surely that's as it should be. What's so different about teachers?

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