Most teachers have, at some time, had to deal with name-calling by children, impressing on them that it invariably reveals more about the name-caller than the victim. So they will be well able to read between the lines of the recent scattershot attack on the GTC (TES, February 6), recognising that it lacked any critique of the GTC’s actual work to date.
Further enhancing the professionalism of teaching demands both advocacy and regulation. The GTC’s success in both of these fields is demonstrable.
Fifteen thousand enrolments by teachers in its Teacher Learning Academy have been shown by evaluations to have benefited both the teachers themselves and their pupils. Some 90,000 teachers have participated in GTC networks. The council’s policy work - most notably in the area of assessment - has already been influential. And its regulatory work is both respectable and respected.
So, confused and unconfident? No.
Ambitious in its desire to see the teaching profession accorded the respect it deserves? Yes.
Unloved? Well, not entirely, as surveys regularly show. But the GMC, 150 years after its inception, is still under constant attack. So the GTC is confident enough to understand that its ambitions will never be achieved through untempered populism.
Tony Neal, Chair of Policy and Research Committee, GTCE
Gill Stainthorpe, Chair of Registration and Regulation Committee, GTCE.