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Introduction
1. The decision to repeal the Schools (Scotland) Code 1956 was announced on 9 October 2002. Repeal was to be in 2 stages. The first stage was completed when The Schools (Scotland) Code Amendment Regulations 2003 came into force on 31 July 2003. The Scottish Executive consulted on the regulations repealing the remainder of the Code and addressing certain provisions such as the requirement for teachers to be registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland, and the qualifications required for teachers teaching the deaf or blind. The consultation was launched on 26 November 2004 and was completed on 25 February 2005.
2. We are grateful to the 37 organisations and individuals who took the time to respond to the consultation paper.
3. The responses were analysed by Teachers Division within the Scottish Executive Education Department. As the decision to repeal the remainder of the Code had been taken in October 2002 the consultation exercise was essentially concerned with the detail of the replacement regulations. However the organisations commenting on the second stage of the repeal took the opportunity to comment on the regulations of the Code that are being repealed. A summary of the responses and the responses will be placed on the Scottish Executive website.
4. Views tended to form 2 groups: those supporting the Code's repeal and those in favour of retaining or increasing the regulations covering the qualifications required to teach in particular sectors.
5. The General Teaching Council for Scotland expressed concerns about regulations 5(1) and 6(1) in the Code that set out the qualifications to teach in primary and secondary schools. They suggested that the proposed replacement regulation be amended to include a requirement that to be employed by an education authority a teacher must have the necessary skills and knowledge.
6. The Council also commented on the proposed change to ensure that teachers suspended by the GTC were able to continue in employment while their case is considered. They considered that the proposed regulation should be amended to ensure that suspended teachers could not take up a new contract to work as a teacher.
Regulations 5, 6, 7 and 8
7. The proposals in the consultation paper as they related to additional support needs were generally welcomed. A number of consultees, including the General Teaching Council for Scotland and the Church of Scotland, argued that the provisions should be extended to include other additional support needs. This was not considered appropriate for several reasons. One is the highly specialised, technical nature of the provision required by visually and/or hearing impaired pupils which is not required to the same degree across all additional support needs. Another consideration would be the broad spectrum of needs covered by the new additional support for learning framework, which would render a general requirement for specialist qualifications impracticable. Finally, teachers of children with other additional support needs will be covered by the general requirement in regulation 3 that a teacher has the skills and knowledge for the post to which he or she is appointed. The GTC, and some others, also suggested that the period during which a non-qualified specialist teacher could teach such children while working to obtain the qualification should be reduced from 5 years (the Executive's proposal) to 3 years. This reduction appears as being unduly restrictive.
Next steps
8. Following the consultation exercise it is intended to amend the Requirements for Teachers Regulations in 4 particular areas:
(1) The requirement for education authorities to employ adequate numbers of staff currently contained in regulation 4(1) of the Code is included in a revised regulation.
(2) In the light of the comments received education authorities will not only be required to employ teachers registered with the General Teaching Council for Scotland but will also be required to employ teachers with the appropriate professional skills and knowledge for the teaching duties allocated to them.
(3) The revised definition of a "registered teacher" provides that a teacher who has been suspended may only, for the period of that suspension, be employed as a teacher by their existing employer, in their existing teaching post.
(4) Regulations 5-7, which relate to the employment of teachers of hearing impaired and visually impaired pupils, have been adjusted to provide that teachers of such pupils require to possess an appropriate qualification for that purpose.