|
||||||||||||
|
The General Teaching Council for England has welcomed the prospect of provisional registration for trainee teachers from September 2008 and for overseas trained teachers and instructors working in maintained schools from September 2009.
Legislation providing for provisional registration was passed in 2002 and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) is now consulting stakeholders on the detail of implementation.
Responding to the consultation Keith Bartley, Chief Executive of the General Teaching Council for England, says:
'We believe that provisional registration is an important means of ensuring that trainee teachers, overseas trained teachers and instructors working in schools, all of whom have frequent contact with children, are both suitable to teach and are properly regulated. This is important for pupils’ welfare and parents’ peace of mind.
'Provisional registration will formally acknowledge and support the significant and worthwhile contribution that these groups already make to the teaching profession and to young people’s education. For trainee teachers, who are the first group to be subject to provisional registration from September 2008, this is a stepping stone to full registration. It allows them to begin their careers on a professional footing and acknowledges that their commitment to the profession begins on their first day of training.'
The DCSF consultation will run for eight weeks beginning on 2 May 2008. The consultation will be available on the DCSF website from this date.
Trainee teachers will be subject to provisional registration from September 2008.
Overseas trained teachers and instructors will be subject to provisional registration from September 2009.
Full registration provides assurance to employers, parents and the public that a teacher is properly qualified and of good standing. Provisional registration will offer similar assurances. Provisionally registered teachers will receive information from their professional body about the expectations placed on them to observe the GTC Code of Professional Conduct and Practice and will be able to access the resources the GTC provides through its web site.
Provisionally registered teachers will be subject to the same disciplinary procedures as fully registered teachers. However, trainee teachers are still developing their professional competence through training and it is therefore anticipated that performance and practice issues will be resolved at local level by their ITT provider as part of the ongoing programme assessments.
Every year, the GTC considers around 150 cases of teachers who have resigned or been dismissed and who face allegations of unacceptable professional conduct or serious professional incompetence. The GTC also hears cases where a teacher has been convicted of a relevant criminal offence that might affect their registration.
The DCSF is in the process of approving grant funding to the GTC over the next two years for the introduction of provisional registration, and there will be no fee charged for provisional registration during this period.
