The confirmation that my nomination paper for the GTC election had been accepted brought with it a list of other “Teachers of Senior Pupils” who were also standing for the 11 posts on the council. I was both delighted and amazed at the number of people who wished, like myself, to serve our profession - a total of 130.

This begs the question “What will my fellow teachers make of a document containing 130 names, personal details, election statements and photographs of the people wishing to represent them?” What criteria or selection process will they use to distribute their 11 votes?

On asking for opinions around the staff room, the general comment was that they would be unlikely to read all the 130 entries in this “Yellow Pages”-thickness voting document.

What seemed most liely was that they would vote for the people they know and then distribute their votes to ensure a balance of sex, age, and ethnic origin on the committee. All very politically correct but does this penalise those with names putting them in the second half of the list? I predict candidate number 81 who is the last of the ‘m’s’ will use up most votes!

I will watch with great interest to see if any of us whose names put us beyond this mark will actually serve, or will the first half of the alphabet dominate regardless of whether those included are the best to represent our profession in the future.

A difficult problem to solve which may challenge greater minds than mine in the future, even if it is only how to reduce the cost of printing the election papers!

Stephen R Perry

“Riverain”

Gravelly Lane

Fiskerton

Southwell

Notts