Teachers who have been “struck off” by the General Teaching Council for Scotland can expect to have details of their case and where they teach published.
The council is to change its current practice of sending out a news release containing only the teacher’s name and the fact that he or she has been deregistered. The move to a new regime is in line with requirements under freedom of information legislation.
At its meeting on Wednesday, the GTC agreed to publish on its website the name of any teacher who has been deregistered, details of the grounds for disciplinary action and the name of the school where they have been a teacher.
However, the council has held back from making a decision on whether to publicise the name of any teachers accused of potentially disciplinary offences before the conclusion of proceedings.
A spokesman for the GTC said: “There was concern about a situation where a teacher had been accused maliciously and then having his or her name published while children’s names can’t be published.”
He said that the GTC was under no legal obligation to publish these details before a disciplinary decision had been taken. However, further debate was being held on what was the correct position for the council to take.
“We need to look at whether it is in any interests to be completely open or whether it would be better to choose to wait until a final decision in a case has been taken,” the spokesman said.
