GTC Scotland’s work to uphold trust in the teaching profession highlighted in annual report
GTC Scotland, the teaching profession’s independent registration and regulation body, has published our Annual Report and Financial Accounts and Annual Review for 2021-22.
This penultimate report from the refreshed Strategic Plan 2020-2023, highlights the work undertaken in the year to April 2022, in pursuit of four strategic outcomes:
- Upholding public trust and confidence in teaching professionals.
- Inspiring and influencing the ongoing transformation in the leadership and professional learning of teaching professionals.
- Delivering innovative, data-informed and high-quality accessible services to registrants and other stakeholders.
- Ensure sustainable, healthy and future proof working arrangements.
Khadija Mohammed, Convener of GTC Scotland Council said:
As teachers and college lecturers, learning is at the heart of what we do. The last year has provided an abundance of learning opportunities as we continued to recover from the pandemic and adapted to a changed world.
We have identified understanding of GTC Scotland’s part in the education system as an area we would like to improve, and I hope the commentary in this Annual Review can go some way to achieve this.
Dr Pauline Stephen, Chief Executive and Registrar of GTC Scotland added:
GTC Scotland was created in 1965 following concerns that unqualified teachers were working in Scottish schools. For over 50 years we have been advocating for high standards in the teaching profession.
Annual Report content summary
Key statistics from the Register of Teachers
- 80,695 teachers recorded on the Register of Teachers
- 2,340 college lecturers registered via the College Lecturer Registration programme
- 137 teachers awarded GTC Scotland’s Standard for Headship
- 247 registrants awarded Professional Registration
- 1,321 people who qualified outside Scotland registered with GTC Scotland
Key Fitness to Teach Data
During 2021-22, we received 230 Fitness to Teach cases:
- 206 related to behaviour
- 17 to ability to teach
- four were registration reviews; and
- three were subsequent registration applications.
54 cases were referred by the public, 51 by employers and 125 from other sources. 174 cases were closed in this reporting period.
Advising the education system
GTC Scotland has a legal responsibility to provide advice to Scottish Ministers.
In our response to the consultation on the replacement of the Scottish Qualifications Authority and the reform of Education Scotland, we stressed the need to ensure that system regulation is clearly understood, and functions across agencies are aligned.
Promoting diversity in the profession
Improving the diversity of the teaching profession is essential to ensuring that teaching is fully reflective of the communities we serve.
We established an award to commemorate the legacy of Saroj Lal, a trailblazing teacher working at the forefront of multicultural and anti-racist education. Theo Ogbhemhe, Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies teacher at Kirkwall Grammar School, became the first recipient of the Saroj Lal Award in September 2021.
Digital services
Digital improvement work focused on the structure, integrity and quality of our data and data analysis. We also fully updated our website.
While data improvements have facilitated the ease in which we are able to provide information, this remains a focus.
Future proofing working arrangements
Over this year, learning from working during the pandemic led to specific work focused on how and where our teams work. This led to the creation of holistic flexible working policy and practice as we moved from a traditional office-based working model to a hybrid and ‘flexible first’ model.
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Access the Annual Review in English
Access the Annual Review in Gaelic
