Local News
Employers are failing to report poor teachers
JUST three cases where teachers have been dismissed or resigned in Worcestershire after being found to be incompetent have been referred to the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) in almost seven years, figures show.
Think tank Policy Exchange has released the figures, claiming local councils and headteachers are failing to report incidents.
Employers, in most cases the local education authority, but sometimes the school itself, are legally obliged to refer to the GTCE teachers who have been dismissed on grounds of incompetence.
They are also supposed to refer cases in which a teacher left a school voluntarily but would have been dismissed if they had not.
The GTCE then has the power, if it decides further action should be taken, to: issue a reprimand to the teacher; attach conditions to a teacher's registration (eg further training) or remove a teacher from the register 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 authorities in England have not referred a single case to the GTCE on grounds of incompetence, according to Policy Exchange.
A further 27 authorities have referred just one case.
According to the figures Worcestershire County Council has referred three cases of incompetency in the past seven years. It has also referred two cases of misconduct since June 2001.
Sue Baker-Williams, head of human resources for the council's children's services, said: "This does seem a very low number in the timescale but I can assure you that we do refer all cases to the GTCE."
The total number of incompetence referrals to the GTCE for the 80 months to January 31 2008 is just 135, or an average of 20 per year.
From 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.
Sam Freedman, head of Policy Exchange's education unit, 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.
"A number of poorly performing schools have lost 30-40 per cent of staff soon after the arrival of a new headteacher. The GTCE are hardly ever informed.
"Headteachers are simply relieved to get rid of the troublesome member of staff."
7:07pm Tuesday 13th May 2008
Print 
Email this 
CommentPosted by: Outraged, Pergatory on 12:18am Wed 14 May 08
I reckon that probably 90% of teachers are incompetent in certain areas of their profession, they might well know their subjects and be able to recite the curriculum material parrot fashion but it takes a LOT more than that to make a really good teacher such as the ability to motivate/enthuse and engage all of their pupils to keep them interested and focused in whatever subjects they may be covering.
The ability to maintain discipline is probably the single biggest area where they quite often fall short. This could be addressed by the introduction or beefing-up of child-psychology & child-behaviour elements in their training.
Having voluntary or low-paid teaching assistants to make up for shortages in qualified staff might be filled by well intentioned individuals but unless those assistants have at least the same level of psych/behaviour training then they are in fact about as useful as a chocolate fire-guard (same applies to the police & specials/cso's).
Of course we're not going to hear about the teachers who are fired or leave because they are no good at their jobs, the schools themselves don't want their profession brought into any more disrepute than it already is do they ? you just don't "grass-up" your colleagues willy-nilly, they have to be really, really bad before they get reported for extreme incompetence.
I reckon that probably 90% of teachers are incompetent in certain areas of their profession, they might well know their subjects and be able to recite the curriculum material parrot fashion but it takes a LOT more than that to make a really good teacher such as the ability to motivate/enthuse and engage all of their pupils to keep them interested and focused in whatever subjects they may be covering.
The ability to maintain discipline is probably the single biggest area where they quite often fall short. This could be addressed by the introduction or beefing-up of child-psychology & child-behaviour elements in their training.
Having voluntary or low-paid teaching assistants to make up for shortages in qualified staff might be filled by well intentioned individuals but unless those assistants have at least the same level of psych/behaviour training then they are in fact about as useful as a chocolate fire-guard (same applies to the police & specials/cso's).
Of course we're not going to hear about the teachers who are fired or leave because they are no good at their jobs, the schools themselves don't want their profession brought into any more disrepute than it already is do they ? you just don't "grass-up" your colleagues willy-nilly, they have to be really, really bad before they get reported for extreme incompetence.
Posted by: CJH, Worcester on 10:33am Wed 14 May 08
Outraged - on what basis have you come up with this 90% figure? Is it 90% of the teachers you know personally or 90% of [bold]all[/bold] teachers? This is just wild speculation and accusation on your part. Where are your [bold]FACTS[/bold] ?
From the bitter nature of your comments are you by any chance a failed or disillusioned teacher? You should state your standpoint in order for us to try and understand how you have arrived at these claims.
And before you ask - no, I'm not a teacher - just someone who dislikes harsh and inaccurate accusations thrown about without supporting evidence. Of course there are bad teachers, but there is no need to castigate almost an entire profession based on your personal experiences.
Outraged - on what basis have you come up with this 90% figure? Is it 90% of the teachers you know personally or 90% of
all teachers? This is just wild speculation and accusation on your part. Where are your
FACTS ?
From the bitter nature of your comments are you by any chance a failed or disillusioned teacher? You should state your standpoint in order for us to try and understand how you have arrived at these claims.
And before you ask - no, I'm not a teacher - just someone who dislikes harsh and inaccurate accusations thrown about without supporting evidence. Of course there are bad teachers, but there is no need to castigate almost an entire profession based on your personal experiences.
Posted by: evadbur, Worcester on 1:07pm Wed 14 May 08
76% of all statistics are made up.
76% of all statistics are made up.
Posted by: CJH, Worcester on 1:37pm Wed 14 May 08
Evadbur - as the young folk these days say - WOOT! and YAY!
A good point well made! Time for a lie down I think...
Evadbur - as the young folk these days say - WOOT! and YAY!
A good point well made! Time for a lie down I think...
Posted by: Outraged, Pergatory on 11:13pm Wed 14 May 08
About (notice I said "about" and NOT precisely) 60% of the teachers that I had at school had no idea how to keep order, command respect and maintain discipline. Now, with the ever increasing number of ASBO kids, Bullying incidents, Knife carrying incidents (plus actual stabbings), Assaults on teachers etc' etc' etc' things have clearly become a whole lot worse over the last 20 years or so hence my personal reckoning of an increase to around 90% of teachers being incompetent especially with regards to order, discipline & respect. 90% is not meant to be an exact figure, it's meant to be an indicator to suggest a majority ... perhaps next time I will say "majority" so as not to irritate any pedants.
Yes, the [bold]probable[/bold] 90% figure is indeed speculation based on personal observations and stories from many parents & pupils that I know & speak to regularly ... that's why I said [bold]I reckon[/bold] at the beginning ... perhaps other people reckon differently, maybe we'll hear from a few of them eh!
About (notice I said "about" and NOT precisely) 60% of the teachers that I had at school had no idea how to keep order, command respect and maintain discipline. Now, with the ever increasing number of ASBO kids, Bullying incidents, Knife carrying incidents (plus actual stabbings), Assaults on teachers etc' etc' etc' things have clearly become a whole lot worse over the last 20 years or so hence my personal reckoning of an increase to around 90% of teachers being incompetent especially with regards to order, discipline & respect. 90% is not meant to be an exact figure, it's meant to be an indicator to suggest a majority ... perhaps next time I will say "majority" so as not to irritate any pedants.
Yes, the
probable 90% figure is indeed speculation based on personal observations and stories from many parents & pupils that I know & speak to regularly ... that's why I said
I reckon at the beginning ... perhaps other people reckon differently, maybe we'll hear from a few of them eh!
Posted by: CJH, Worcester on 12:49pm Thu 15 May 08
Outraged - as a pedant, I can assure you that I read your comments very carefully indeed, and took notice of the words that you used. It was those words you highlighted; probably, reckon etc, that made me reply as I did. I still stick by my observations and ask for facts! How would you equate your view with mine that I had very few (I cannot give a % figure obviously because I lack the necessary researched data) 'incompetent' teachers at school? You say mountain - I say molehill!
Outraged - as a pedant, I can assure you that I read your comments very carefully indeed, and took notice of the words that you used. It was those words you highlighted; probably, reckon etc, that made me reply as I did. I still stick by my observations and ask for facts! How would you equate your view with mine that I had very few (I cannot give a % figure obviously because I lack the necessary researched data) 'incompetent' teachers at school? You say mountain - I say molehill!
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
