Some of us have been unhappy with what passes for education these days, but banning a teacher forever? For “being useless?”

That’s what happened recently in Great Britain, and not everyone is happy about it, of course. Here’s the story from The Daily Mail‘s website:

>>The first teacher banned for life for being useless

By Sarah Harris and Arthur Martin

A teacher who is judged to be incapable of ever improving his work has become the first to be banned for life from the classroom due to incompetence.

Nisar Ahmed will never reach ‘requisite standards’ of teaching and cannot work in state schools again, a panel ruled.

The General Teaching Council for England found the 46-year-old guilty of serious professional incompetence and said there was a risk that pupils would be seriously disadvantaged if he was ever allowed to return to lessons.

Mr Ahmed was head of business studies at the John O’Gaunt Community Technology College in Hungerford, Berkshire, from September 2007 to January 2009.

He had taught for a total of 13 years at schools across the South-East.

His management of lessons was ‘invariably’ below standard, the GTC disciplinary panel was told.

The school, which has more than 450 pupils, aged 11 to 18, gave Mr Ahmed ‘extensive formal and informal’ support for more than a year but he failed to improve.

Just 13 teachers have been banned from the profession for fixed periods for incompetence since 2000.

Mr Ahmed is the first to receive a prohibition order without time limit.

His organisation of classes was deemed ‘persistently poor’, with class registers regularly left uncompleted and student work folders ‘poorly managed’ and sometimes left at home or in his car when they were needed in lessons.

Marking was persistently not done or delayed and feedback to pupils was inadequate, GTC committee chair Rosalind Burford said.

She added: ‘You regularly failed to undertake proper lesson plans. This resulted in a lack of pace and challenge in your lessons and a lack of clear learning objectives.’

These ‘fundamental’ failings had a significantly adverse effect on his students, she said, adding: ‘We could not be satisfied that you have an appropriate level of insight into your shortcomings.

‘Thus, we felt you posed a significant risk of repeating your actions.’

Two years ago, GTC chief executive Keith Bartley said there could be as many as 17,000 ‘substandard’ members of staff among the 500,000 registered teachers in the UK.

The small number banned for incompetence will spark fears these teachers are simply being recycled.

Mr. Ahmed was head of business at the John O’Gaunt Community Technology College in Hungerford, Berkshire

Mr Ahmed had been placed under a formal capability process in December 2008. He resigned shortly after learning his case would be considered by governors.

Michael Wheale, the school’s former headteacher who gave evidence at the hearing, was unavailable for comment.

Its current head Neil Spurdell said: ‘Under a capability process, teachers do have the opportunity to improve against certain targets and many do.

‘The bottom line is you can’t have pupils disadvantaged by inadequate teaching. They only have one chance at this.’

Last night Mr Ahmed, who lives in Reading with his wife and their two children, said he would be appealing the GTC decision.

He added: ‘They have made a scapegoat out of me. I’m deeply unhappy about it and don’t deserve to be the first to be struck off for life.'<<

One of the challenges facing educators today is the advancement of technology. Here’s a video with students talking about these recent changes:

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