Gary Brace considers the international challenges facing the profession

24 June 2009

More than 50 education professionals from across the world will meet in Cardiff today (24 June) for the first day of the International Teaching Councils’ conference. At the conference, delegates will discuss issues and challenges facing the profession. Gary Brace, chief executive of the General Teaching Council for Wales (GTCW), examines the issues being discussed and what these pose for the teaching profession in Wales.

In 2007, the GTCW took a decision to host the third International Teaching Councils’ Conference. This conference is important. It allows senior members of the professional bodies to take stock of international developments in professional regulation and to discuss the main challenges facing the profession since the last conference, held in 2006 in Melbourne.

The conference provides a forum for leading-edge discussion and for delegates to hear keynote speakers of national and international renown. With Cardiff hosting the conference, it puts the teaching profession in Wales firmly on the world education map.

One of today’s keynote speakers, Professor John Furlong, will look at the features of the world’s best education systems and comment on how Wales matches up. Professor Furlong will refer to the key McKinsey report’s conclusion that the quality of a country’s education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers. In Finland, for example, one of the countries constantly looked up to in international comparisons of educations systems, the very best graduates are recruited to their teaching profession.

We have an outstanding teaching profession in Wales, but I am yet to be convinced that the government is committed to recruiting to teaching from our top level graduates. But at least in Wales we are recognising the crucial role of teachers through our on-going support for teachers in their first three years of their careers and through the individually focused funding programme for continuing professional development. Having said this, the ‘pot’ of £3m available to teachers needs to be increased considerably to ensure all teachers have an equal bite of the cherry in building on their knowledge, skills and understanding.

Then there is the chartered teacher programme, which we are currently trialling. This programme will give recognition to highly skilled classroom teachers but who may not necessarily aspire to be senior school leaders.

These are developments that parents in Wales should find reassuring, as every parent will want the best for their children and being taught by the best gives children a great start in life.

One of the challenges facing teaching councils, which will be debated at the conference passionately, is how the profession should be regulated. Regulation does not mean prying into teacher’s private lives, but we do have a regulatory function and a responsibility to the parents and public to ensure that, in the first place, persons are suitable to be in charge of our children and, subsequently, maintain the highest standards of conduct and practice.

It is vital that the public interest remains at the centre of professional regulation, but, in practice, this is always a balancing act between judging each case on its own merits and acting in the public interest, as shown, for example through the openness of our hearings.

In British Columbia, the College of Teachers has an ‘alternative resolution process’ – whereby if the teacher who is facing allegations of unprofessional conduct admits the facts, there is a process for moving to an agreed statement and an acceptance of sanctions without the need for a hearing. It will be interesting to hear how the Canadians achieve this, while maintaining the public interest or avoiding moving to ‘plea bargaining’ or accusations of acting behind closed doors.

Harry Cayton from the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) will explain how the medical profession regulate in the public interest. Since 2001, the GMC and other health regulators have been answerable to the CHRE following the Harold Shipman case. The CHRE is a ‘supra-regulator’ and can overturn GMC verdicts in professional standards cases.

In the teaching profession there is no such overarching body and we want to keep it this way. To ensure this, it is vital the profession continues to demonstrate the trust placed in it though the GTCW’s actions in the public interest. I am sure that the tiny minority of teachers who come before our disciplinary panels, as well as the wider profession, think that it is infinitely better to have system of discipline by peers who have an understanding of teaching rather than by outsiders which was the system that prevailed before the GTCW.

It is vital we get the area of regulation right. If we don’t, the implications can be far reaching including High Court Appeal and, ultimately, the potential for loss of trust in the ability of the profession to regulate itself.

Another important issue that will be debated at the conference is international teacher mobility, and attending the conference are both teacher recruiter and exporter nations.

Under the auspices of the Commonwealth Secretariat, a voluntary protocol was signed five years ago which discourages recruitment from countries where it can be argued are most in need of skilled teachers. While this is not an issue for us in Wales, it is of serious concern for other delegates. I will be interested to hear the perspectives of our South African and Jamaican colleagues, for example.

In Wales, it is the reverse of course. John Furlong’s Review in 2006 highlighted the need to reduce teacher training numbers in Wales to avoid the training for unemployment scenario we had been following for too long. We are now making progress towards getting a better match between teacher supply and demand in Wales.

Lastly, I want there to be some tangible benefits from our two and half days together. Building on the ‘Edinburgh Declaration’ that we signed after the first ever international conference in 2005 and in which we agreed to co-operate around some key areas of work, I hope delegates will identify and agree some specific actions and activities. I would be pleased if this could be enshrined in an international ‘Cardiff Commitment’ document.