Leading article: Teacher check

The General Teaching Council this week called on the Government to require all teachers in Academies to be registered with them before they are allowed to start work. At the moment, because Academies are defined as independent schools, teachers working in them are not required to register. That could mean that people judged guilty of misconduct or incompetence in other state schools could be free to teach in Academies. The General Teaching Council was set up to boost the professional status of teachers via a register similar to the one that doctors have. Surely it should apply to everyone. Academies obviously enjoy independent status, but the regulation of teachers' standards is too important an issue to be left to the market-place.