New CEO and Registrar at GTC Scotland
Ken
Muir, CEO and Registrar of the General Teaching Council for Scotland
(GTCS), the independent professional body for the teaching profession
in Scotland, is retiring on 12 March 2021 after seven and a half
years in post. Prior to moving to GTCS, Ken was Her Majesty’s
Chief Inspector of Education and Head of Inspection in Scotland.
During
his time as CEO, Ken has significantly updated GTCS’s internal
procedures and infrastructure, introducing the widespread use of
technology and revised staffing and salary structures. Externally,
he has led the successful introduction of Professional Update for all
76500 teachers on GTCS’s Register which involves the body signing
off every five years the professional learning of all registrants.
He has also led the move to require that all college lecturers and
teachers in independent schools are registered with GTCS, both of
which become mandatory in law from this summer in Scotland.
Under
Ken’s leadership, GTCS has recently introduced refreshed
Professional Standards for the teaching profession in Scotland and he
led the recent campaign that successfully forced the UK Government to
concede to the teaching profession being made exempt from the
requirements of the UK Internal Market Bill. An expert in Finnish
education, Ken has long been involved in delivering to national and
international education events, an ongoing one of which is his
planning of the virtual event this May for the global International
Forum for Teaching Regulatory Authorities (IFTRA), to be hosted by
GTCS.
Ken’s
successor is Dr Pauline Stephen. Pauline began her career as a
primary teacher, rising to be the Principal Educational Psychologist
and Head of Inclusion and Integration in one of Scotland’s local
authorities before becoming its Director of Schools
and Learning, and Chief Education Officer. It is from this
post that she was recruited to GTCS in October 2019 as its Director
of Education, Registration and Professional Learning.
PARN is grateful for GTCS’s long-standing membership and Ken’s
engagement with our services, including the CEO Forum and research
projects. We wish him the best of luck for the future and we look
forward to working with Pauline going forward.