"Children must come first"

"Standards must be maintained"

Six Months to Get Rid of Incompetent Teachers

Mr Byers, who has special responsibility for standards in schools, has written to local authorities and the National Employers' Organisation for School Teachers (NEOST) asking for their ideas. At the moment it can take 18 months or more to sack incompetent staff but Mr Byers says the job can be done within six months.

McAvoy: failing teachers need support

The minister says getting rid of poor teachers quickly is essential to the Government's "fresh start" approach to failing schools, which would be closed and then re-opened with new staff. But there is a note of caution from the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Doug McAvoy. He wants more support for teachers who may be judged to be working below standard before there is any talk of dismissal.

Key to removing sub-standard teachers is an agreed, binding method of assessing their abilities and NEOST, which represents all local authority and church school employers, is holding a meeting on June 16 to consider the options. NEOST chairman Graham Lane said there must be a tougher, compulsory system of appraisal - at the moment it is voluntary and cannot be linked to disciplinary proceedings.