Scotland’s 1,216 chartered teachers and a further 2,800 on the programme face uncertainty after the McCormac report recommended the programme be discontinued.

Gerry McCormac, chair of the review, said the scheme had not produced the intended outcomes for pupils.

“Absence of specific duties attached to the role of chartered teacher means that in some instances, chartered teachers are paid more to undertake the same job they have always done with no improved outcomes for children and young people,” said the report.

But David Noble, chair of the Association of Chartered Teachers Scotland, argued that the McCormac committee’s decision was not backed up the academic evidence of the last four years.

Mr Noble predicted that the review’s proposed extension of temporary promotions to point 1 of the principal teacher scale would not be attractive to existing CTs, largely because of the tone of the report.

“It seems to be a wholesale rejection,” he said. “What you have are groups of chartered teachers within local authorities who have been working collegiately and are recognised within their authorities, and teachers in individual schools who have crafted relationships with headteachers, who are distraught at the suggestion that they have been particularly ineffective.”

elizabeth.buie@tes.co.uk.