Incompetent teachers

The glare of publicity can be uncomfortable for the private individual, as Susan Barnard has probably discovered. The 55-year-old made news yesterday when she became the first person to appear before the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTC) to determine whether she should be struck off the body's register. A teacher cannot practise in the classroom if he or she is not on the register. Mrs Barnard is not the first teacher to be sacked for incompetence in Scotland. But she is the first to be referred to the GTC under a process introduced in 2006 aimed at delivering consistently high standards throughout the profession and across Scotland.