CLEARER language should be used in dismissing staff, Angus says in its response to the General Teaching Council for Scotland’s draft code of practice on teacher competence.
The council wants to ditch “temporary underperformance” and “chronic incompetence” in favour of “unsatisfactory performance” and “incompetence”.
In welcoming the thrust of the code, Angus argues: “The key issue facing an employer is not necessarily the length of time for which such issues have existed but rather whether the unsatisfactory performance is capable of being resolved.”
If teachers are reluctant to comply with advice and support, formal disciplinary procedures may have to be implemented “even though the difficulty is not longstanding in nature”.
The Standards in Scotland’s Schools Act 2000 extended the GTC’s role into areas of competence and health and introduced changes to its disciplinary procedures. It will soon be able to strike a teacher from the register for incompetence once he or she has been dismissed by a local council.
