A secondary school teacher who submitted a falsified letter of professional standing to the Teaching Council on three occasions has been censured, a fitness-to-teach panel has ruled.
Chairwoman of the panel Adrieanne Healy said while the teacher’s conduct was “serious”, as it involved dishonesty and deliberately misleading the council, it was “not at the apex of such behaviour”.
The General Teaching Council of Northern Ireland (GTCNI) had issued a letter of professional standing to the teacher (41) dated May 11th, 2023.
The panel found proven that the teacher had altered the letter on two occasions before submitting it to the Teaching Council in May 2023, June 2024 and October 2024 as part of his registration process with the regulator.
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The panel found that the proven allegations amounted to professional misconduct and breaches of the code of professional conduct for teachers.
Healy said the panel differentiated this case from others involving the deliberate falsification of qualifications as the teacher had completed the requirements in question, namely that of induction and early professional development (EPD).
She said the panel felt that censure was a proportionate sanction that also protected the public interest in the maintenance of a well-regulated profession and sent an appropriate message to the teaching profession.
After qualifying from a university in Belfast in 2009, the geography teacher taught in England until 2015 as there were very few teaching positions available in Northern Ireland at the time, he told the panel.
In 2023 he accepted a permanent position in a school in the State and applied to be registered with the Teaching Council.
During his registration process he was being paid at the unqualified rate, which exerted a “squeeze on the family budget”, Kate Egan, barrister for the director of the Teaching Council, said.
In November 2023, he was registered under the post-primary route with conditions attached, including that he complete the Droichead induction requirement.
The teacher told the panel that it is not mandatory in Northern Ireland to upload proof of completion of the induction process to gain registration.
Egan said that most teachers upload evidence of completion of the induction process once they are registered.
In response to a request from the Teaching Council the teacher on June 14th, 2024, submitted the letter of professional standing where he amended its date to May 7th, 2024, and inserted that he had completed induction and all EPD training.
After the teacher resubmitted in October 2024 the letter of professional standing dated May 11th, 2023, the Teaching Council liaised with the GTCNI to verify the authenticity of the letters submitted whereupon the alterations came to light.
The panel heard evidence from the statements of two witnesses, namely Siobhán Healy, who has oversight over the registration department at the Teaching Council, and Julie-Anne Stevenson, head of professional standards at the GTCNI.
The GTCNI said, at that time, it had no record of the teacher completing the induction and EPD requirements.
Egan submitted that a period of suspension from the register would be appropriate as the behaviour of the teacher was “deliberate ... premeditated ... and was not a one-off but involved a pattern of misleading the Teaching Council”.
A character reference from the principal of the teacher’s current school – who is also aware of the inquiry – which praised the teacher for his management of the transition year programme and his successful introduction of the Leaving Certificate Applied programme to the school, was provided to the panel.
The inquiry heard that the teacher completed his induction training while teaching in England and the EPD requirement while teaching in Northern Ireland.
However, at the time of applying to be registered with the Teaching Council he was unable to obtain the documentation that proved he had completed these requirements.
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Eoin McGlinchy, solicitor for the teacher, asked that the panel take in to account that while the conduct of his client was “obviously wrong and very foolish”, that it was “clearly a stressful time” for him where he had two very young children at the time, including a newborn, and was moving jurisdiction.
Egan told the panel the teacher was co-operative with the investigation process and made full admissions to the allegations at an early stage in the process.
The identity of the teacher and his school were anonymised at the direction of the panel at a preliminary hearing.
