Education Minister Announces Immediate Dissolution Of Teaching Council

Education Minister Michelle McIlveen has announced a decision to dissolve the General Teaching Council for Northern Ireland (GTCNI).

An independent Effectiveness Review of the Council found "systemic failures and a breakdown of working relationships".

Announcing her decision, Minister McIlveen has told the Assembly that she will bring forward the necessary legislation as soon as possible and has decided to stand down the current GTCNI Council and its Committees with immediate effect.

Speaking in the Assembly, Michelle McIlveen said: "GTCNI has not fulfilled its responsibilities and been the voice for the teaching profession that it was intended to be.

"The report presented to the Department, reflects an NDPB in organisational failure, with a majority of its members acknowledging that it is failing.

"I am clear, and legal advice has confirmed, that I would be failing in my responsibilities as Minister of Education if I did not take rapid and decisive action, having received such a stark indictment of the Council and its leadership."

The Department of Education will now bring forward a public consultation exercise to identify which of the Council's functions are critical to the wider education system and must be preserved. In addition, the consultation will seek views from the public, the teaching profession and key educational stakeholders on how these can be delivered efficiently and effectively.

This consultation will inform the drafting of the legislation needed to dissolve the Council while putting in place alternative mechanisms to protect those key functions.

Concluding, the Minister said: "It is essential that suitably qualified individuals wishing to teach here do not face any unnecessary barriers or delays in entering our workforce, particularly given the current pressures facing schools.

"Arrangements are already being put in place to ensure GTCNI registration, a legal requirement for all NI teachers, continues without interruption."