TEACHERS have welcomed the launch of a consultation on the services once provided by the now dissolved General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (GTCNI).
Education Minister Michelle McIlveen yesterday said the consultation will "identify those functions currently assigned to the council which need to be kept and to seek views from the public, the teaching profession and key educational stakeholders on how these could be delivered efficiently and effectively".
GTCNI was dissolved with immediate effect in December, after an independent effectiveness review revealed internal systemic failures and a breakdown of working relationships.
Ms McIlveen said the exercise would "give the teaching profession, educational stakeholders and the wider public an opportunity to shape how we now move forward".
Jacquie White of the Ulster Teachers’ Union welcomed the consultation and said: "The role of a body like the GTCNI has never been more crucial to the profession yet teachers - and ultimately children - have been let down."
"This consultation has not come a moment too soon either given the unnecessary barriers and delays teachers have faced in actually getting registered to teach here," she said.
"The inefficacy of this organisation actually managed to exacerbate the pressures schools face as they continue to work around staff absences due to Covid – and that’s before we even see what next winter will bring. We now have a chance, however, to insist on an organisation that is resourced and equipped and fit for purpose in effectively delivering the registration and regulation of our profession into the future."
