ATL

Scotland

Accountability shouldn't mean media witch-hunts of teachers, explains ATL's national official for Scotland, Keith Robson

ATL believes in teacher professionalism and recognises that with professional autonomy come responsibilities and the need for accountability - see our position statement on new professionalism for further details. Teachers, however, have never been as accountable for their professional and personal conduct as they are now.

GTC Scotland last year launched its updated code of professionalism and conduct to take account of changes in legislation and the growth of the internet and social networks, so that the "boundaries of professional behaviour and conduct are clear". The HM Inspectorate of Education also issued guidance last year on its new approach to the inspections regime, focusing on self-evaluation and promoting improvement. Thankfully, it is a far cry from the proposed requirements on schools in England, discussed in detail in this month's cover story.

Accountability came to the fore in Scotland at the end of last year when an unsightly media scrum took place at the offices of the GTC Scotland. The occasion, not a visit by a 'celebrity' or indeed the First Minister, but the arrival at a disciplinary hearing of the (subsequently) first teacher in Scotland to be struck off the council's register for incompetence.

I don't wish to comment on that - or any of the pending cases before the council - other than to say accountability should not mean a media witch-hunt that lays bare the perceived failings of teachers and condemns them on television, on the radio, on the internet and in print, before a hearing is convened.