‘Incompetent’ teacher wins her battle against being struck off

A TEACHER struck off for professional incompetence after an “unprecedented” number of complaints from pupils and parents has won her appeal.

Janet Garner convinced the Court of Session in Edinburgh there were serious flaws in the way she had been treated by the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS). Three appeal judges quashed a decision to remove her from the register of teachers, and returned the case to the GTCS for it to determine whether proceedings against her should be renewed.

Mrs Garner said: “Obviously, I am extremely pleased. There might be further legal proceedings and we need to wait and see what happens.”

She is an honours graduate in pure mathematics and statistics from St Andrews University and worked in research analysis before a career break to have a family. She obtained a teaching qualification in 1998 at Moray House College of Education in Edinburgh, and began working for Clackmannanshire Council as a maths teacher in 2003, first at Alva Academy and later at Alloa Academy.

The council sacked her in 2007 because of concerns about her competency, and the case was referred to the GTCS. It held Mrs Garner had failed to meet the standards of competence and performance required of a teacher and she was struck off, becoming the fifth teacher to be banned on such a ground.

The proceedings in 2010 and 2011 were the longest tribunal in Scottish education history. Reference was made to an unusually large number of complaints from pupils or parents.

Mrs Garner appealed the decision and cited 113 examples of what she contended had been errors of law by the GTCS’s disciplinary sub-committee.

Lord Osborne, sitting with Lords Eassie and Emslie at the Court of Session, said one of her main complaints was a failure by the committee to take into account substantial evidence about the attainment of pupils taught by her.

The committee had spoken of “poor attainment in her classes”, but Lord Osborne said: “Mrs Garner presented a large amount of statistical evidence related to class and individual results. There is no indication the committee gave any consideration to that material beyond reference to its existence … the decision appears to us to lack the reasoning which would be essential to a fair and rational decision.”

On the level of complaints, Lord Osborne said there was evidence to show some were misconceived, some were misdirected against Mrs Garner and others were “quite simply without validity”