Just who are the "General Teaching Council?"

Just reading in the left wing press ( funded by government appointment advertising - ie tax payer funded) that the GTC (General Teaching Council) doesn't like the ideas of testing before 16 at all.

It seem they are against objective information and prefer manufactured information, based on samples that can be relied on to produce the correct political answers. The excuses they give are too pathetic to be repeated here.

So who are the GTC and where did they come from ? Their web sites stated the following: (ref here)

The GTC was established by the Teaching and Higher Education Act 1998, and the first Council began its work on 1 September 2000.

Pressure for a General Teaching Council dates back to the nineteenth century. A General Teaching Council was established in Scotland in 1965 but it took until 1997 to secure a government commitment to introduce GTCs in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Following consultation with a wide variety of education interests including the teacher unions, the 1998 Act gave effect to the long-held aspiration to give teaching the same status as other self-regulating professions.

The Act set the Council two aims: “to contribute to improving standards of teaching and the quality of learning, and to maintain and improve standards of professional conduct among teachers, in the interests of the public”.

The General Teaching Council exists to support teachers’ professional efforts to offer children and young people high quality teaching that meets their needs and enables them to learn and thrive.

A Government created pseudo professional body - you just know that's got to be bad. They have a council of 64 members - so that's dysfunctional by almost just by definition of its make up.

The Council has 64 members, two thirds of whom are practising teachers.

All of the elected teacher and nominated members hold office for four years. The term of office for current elected and nominated members ends on 31 August 2008.

Those members appointed by the Secretary of State hold office for terms of between two and five years. The Secretary of State announced the appointment of 12 new members to the Council and the reappointment of an existing member in August 2005. Their term of office started on 1 September 2005.

Its cost £33/year and teachers have to belong (not sure if they have a choice). As an Engineer Man in a Shed pays over £120/year, but can tell the Institution of Chemical Engineers to take a running jump if he felt it was necessary ( which it isn't ).

What makes my government plot antennae twitch is that the government is busy trying to take control of my wife's profession also. The Pharmaceutical society of Great Britain is about to be run over by the government steam roller of political interference modernisation - see here. How long before the government tries to use such bodies to achieve its political ends ?

In their dreams they will be taking over the BMA - if they could.