GTCS ELECTIONS 2009 - VOTE FOR EIS CANDIDATES

The General Teaching Council for Scotland has an increasingly important role to play in Scottish education. It impacts on teacher professionalism and the work of teachers throughout their careers. The EIS supports the work of GTCS as a major stakeholder body in education.

• GTCS has a major role to play in the development of education and teacher professionalism. This role will increase in importance as GTCS moves towards independent status, a recent decision of the Scottish Government
  
  
• To be able to teach in Scotland, every teacher must be registered with GTCS
  
  
• GTCS sets 3 professional standards – Initial Teacher Education, Full Registration and Chartered Teacher. GTCS also administers the Standard for Headship
  
  
• GTCS accredits Initial Teacher Education and Chartered Teacher courses, as well as playing an increasing role in the area of CPD
  
  
• Cases of alleged teacher misconduct or incompetence are reported to GTCS, which has the right to use the ultimate sanction of removing teachers from the GTCS register

Term of office

Successful candidates will be entitled to serve until the end of the term of office of the Twelfth Council.

This may be for a period of four years or less -as will be determined by the Scottish Government in light of the decision to grant GTCS independent status. This will become clear in the course of the consultation process which will take place over the summer.

Categories for Election to GTCS

On the GTCS Council there are 50 members, 26 elected teacher representatives, 18 from educational and related bodies and 6 nominated by the First Minister. This means that the teacher majority within the Council is 2.

The categories for election are as follows:

The closing date for application was Wednesday 29 April 2009.

Voting papers for the forthcoming GTCS Council elections will be circulated by the Electoral Reform Society from 1 September. Information on EIS candidates for this very important election has already been sent to schools and to EIS member’s home addresses.

Your colleagues have been selected as candidates because of their depth and range of professional experience and skills. We believe strongly that their experience, taken together with their personal integrity equip them well to represent their colleagues on the new GTCS Council.

All of the candidates are classroom teachers, EIS members who command the respect of their colleagues in their schools, of colleagues whose interests they represent in a number of fora, and of the EIS, both at national and local levels. All are committed to promoting the highest standards within the profession and to seeking to overcome the many challenges which teachers in schools confront on a daily basis.

It is very important that you support your colleagues by voting in large numbers.

All candidate statements and leaflets are available to download.

» EIS Primary/Nursery Candidates

» EIS Secondary Candidates

» EIS Primary/Nursery Headteacher Candidates

» EIS Secondary Headteacher Candidates

To vote online please go to www.gtcs.org.uk and follow the links. You must have your GTCS number and your voting papers to hand. GTCS will donate 15p to a children's charity for every member voting online.