Anthony Wilkes may mourn the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) (letters, page 29, 20 May) but few others will. Of its triple remit it fulfilled only one: the register of teachers. Not hard to do, when registration was compulsory.

By its own admission it failed to persuade the Government to change its “ideological interference”.

And as for raising the standing of the profession, its disciplinary panels have provided a steady stream of salacious stories for a gleeful media.

And assurances that it was also doing valuable but unreported work behind the scenes rang very hollow to a profession constantly under hostile scrutiny.

The GTCE had far more time to turn itself round than any failing school. It could have wielded enormous unpartisan, apolitical authority, but its supine acquiesence in the role of politicians’ poodle is the greatest missed opportunity of the last decade. In the schools where I work, the GTCE is a matter of complete indifference. That is the true measure of its failure.

Phil Delnon, Supply teacher, Swanscombe, Kent.