A teacher “incapable” of ever being able to improve his performance has become the first to be banned for life for incompetence.
Nisar Ahmed will never reach the “requisite standards” and should not be allowed to work in state schools again, according to the General Teaching Council.
A total of 13 other teachers have been banned from the profession for fixed periods for incompetence since the inception of the GTC in 2000, but Mr Ahmed is the first to be given a prohibition order without a time limit.
He was head of business studies at the John O’Gaunt Community Technology College in Hungerford, Berkshire, between September 2007 and January 2009. However, he was placed under formal capability procedures in December 2008 following an Ofsted inspection the previous month. He resigned shortly after learning that his case would be considered by governors.
The school’s former executive head Michael Wheale told the hearing that Mr Ahmed was below standard in lesson management, organisation, monitoring and lesson planning and this was leading to “unsatisfactory behaviour” by students.
Mr Ahmed’s organisation was, the panel heard, “persistently poor”, he failed to complete registers regularly, pupils’ work folders were “poorly managed” and sometimes left in his car or home when they were needed in the classroom.
“Marking of students’ work was persistently not done or was done very late,” GTC committee chair Rosalind Burford told Mr Ahmed.
“You regularly failed to undertake proper lesson planss. This resulted in a lack of pace and challenge in your lessons, a lack of clear learning objectives, and an excessive focus on ‘doing’ rather than ‘learning.”
“Your actions fall seriously short of the levels of competence expected of you in the areas of management of lessons, organisational skills, monitoring, assessment and lesson planning, and amount to serious professional incompetence.”
School managers gave Mr Ahmed “extensive formal and informal support” for more than a year. He had been a teacher for 13 years, and supply agencies he worked for before and after his time at John O’Gaunt said his work was of an “acceptable standard”.
“The failings in your performance were fundamental and adversely affected your students to a significant degree,” Mrs Burford said.
“We felt that you posed a significant risk of repeating your actions and that pupils might be seriously disadvantaged as a consequence.
“In our view, Mr Ahmed does not possess the capability ever to achieve the requisite standards and no useful purpose would be served by specifying a period of time.”
Christine Blower, general secretary of teaching union the NUT, said the fact that this was the first incompetent teacher to be struck off in ten years dispelled any “myths”.
“The GTC’s regulatory functions should be exercised with a view to promoting high standards of teaching, not punishment in those cases where standards fall. As a permanent prohibition order effectively ends the individual’s career, unless they are successful on appeal, this will always be a very serious matter.”
