Just one teacher has been dismissed for incompetence in the last 20 years across all of the north and north-east, it has emerged.
Former Dingwall Academy head teacher and now local councillor, Graham MacKenzie, suspects head teachers “will do what they can” to find a way to avoid the long and drawn out process of trying to prove incompetence.
He acknowledged the process can be complicated by factors such as claims by under-performing teachers of unfair treatment by their line managers.
But Mr MacKenzie stressed he never had any reason to dismiss a teacher on incompetence grounds during his tenure, which ended in 2009. He added: “Over the period of time at Alness and Dingwall there were issues of performance that came up and discussions were had initially with heads of department. But these were rare instances and almost always they were resolved because people were prepared to work professionally.”
Mr MacKenzie also said that a teacher who may be the subject of such discussions often realises the profession is not for them and mutually agrees to leave.
The Press and Journal asked all Scottish councils for figures for the number of teachers dismissed for incompetence in the past 20 years.
Feedback revealed just one teacher was dismissed on those grounds in the Western Isles in 2010. But the education authorities for Highland, Orkney, Shetland and Aberdeen had no such dismissals.
Only Orkney Council confirmed they held information about the number of allegations of incompetence, which was none.
Moray Council’s information officer said there were no records and records would only be available if formal action was taken but, even then, it would only be on file for up to a year.
Aberdeenshire Council do not hold any records on dismissals for incompetence. Across Scotland there have been very few incompetence dismissals – including none in Edinburgh, Stirling and Fife.
In North Ayrshire, since January 2004 there have been nine dismissals for incompetence.
The information officer for Perth and Kinross Council said they could not reveal specific figures as numbers were lower than five. Councils such as Renfrewshire and West Lothian had no dismissals but revealed figures for the number of teachers they needed to performance manage, which was less than 10 in each case.
A Highland Council spokeswoman said the education authority and schools put training and support programmes in place to try and ensure new teachers get the chance to develop into strong professionals, adding: “For a small number of teachers further support may be required – this is provided through the normal professional development cycle. It is only in extreme cases that the competency process needs to be used.”