Gove scraps teaching watchdog
By politics.co.uk staff
Michael Gove has scrapped a teaching standards council as part of his drive to reduce bureaucracy in the education system.
The new education secretary announced the decision to the Commons during a debate on the Queen’s Speech yesterday.
Justifying his decision Mr Gove cited the example of a recent decision by the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) to allow a BNP activists who described immigrants as “savage animals” to remain on the teaching register.
“We need new proposals to ensure that extremism has no place in our classrooms and the bodies that have failed to protect us in the past cannot be the answer in the future,” Mr Gove said.
The body had failed to improve efficiency, he added.
“Instead it simply acts as a further layer of bureaucracy while taking money away from teachers,” he added.
“I want there to be stronger and clearer arrangements in relation to teacher misconduct and I am not convinced the GTCE is the right organisation to take these forward. I intend to seek authority from Parliament to abolish the General Teaching Council for England.”
The coalition government’s ‘bonfire of the quangos’ has already scrapped two education bodies, the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency and the schools technology agency Becta.
