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The General Teaching Council for England (GTC) has set up a national taskforce to eliminate barriers and create opportunities for disabled people who wish to enter teaching (18th Nov 2005).
The Disabled Teacher Taskforce, hosted by the GTC, brings together relevant national bodies to build the promotion of disability equality into their practice and policies. The taskforce, supported by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC), consists of members from of a range of organisations including the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) and Department for Education and Skills (DfES).
At a meeting in November, the taskforce considered the ways in which member national bodies could create more opportunities for people with disabilities to enter teaching. In particular, it looked at issues surrounding training ITT providers, inspection and quality assurance, monitoring of numbers of disabled teachers and ensuring that standards of entry into teaching do not unfairly exclude disabled people.
The taskforce will meet again in Spring 2006 to agree the key actions that national bodies can take forward to eliminate barriers facing disabled teachers who wish to enter teaching.
Professor Barry Carpenter, Chair of the taskforce, said:
“Not only do disabled teachers have their disability and the pressures of studying to contend with but, once they start to train as a teacher, they are dependent on their training provider to correctly assess their needs and provide support.
“The taskforce’s main aim is to acknowledge the challenges that remain in relation to under-representation of disabled teachers in the profession and to change policy to help improve the situation.
“In building inclusive schools, we need to ensure not only the inclusion of pupils with disabilities but also teachers with disabilities who can be their role models.”
GTC Chief Executive Carol Adams said:
“The GTC’s commitment to equality underpins all of its functions and we are now extending our work to support people with disabilities entering the teaching profession.
“It is vital that teachers with disabilities receive the support they need throughout their entire career and the GTC is working with all of our partners to achieve this.”
