Teacher who admitted forging document about experience avoids suspension

Seán McCárthaigh

A teacher who tried to fast-track his accreditation with the Teaching Council by forging documents about his teaching experience in Northern Ireland has been censured, despite calls from the regulatory body that he should have faced suspension.

A fitness-to-teach inquiry found six allegations of professional misconduct proven against the teacher in relation to documents he submitted to the Teaching Council to register as a teacher in the Republic.

The name of the teacher – a married father in his early 40s – and the current school where he teaches cannot be published by direction of the three-person inquiry panel.

The inquiry chairperson, Adrieanne Healy, said the conduct of the teacher had also amounted to breaches of the Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers.

Announcing the sanction of censure, Healy said there had been significant mitigating factors in the case, including early full admissions, a wholehearted apology by the teacher and a positive character reference from his current principal.

She said the inquiry panel accepted he may have been under significant strain at the time but had subsequently demonstrated insight into his misconduct which was “profoundly out of character.”

While the Teaching Council had been misled, Healy acknowledged that the teacher had not falsified his actual qualifications and there had been no risk to students or other teachers.

At the same time, she said his actions could have undermined public trust and confidence in the Teaching Council’s registration system if a verification process had not discovered what he had done.

Ms Healy said such behaviour could not be tolerated as it would manifestly undermine the integrity of the Teaching Council’s registration process.

At a hearing on Thursday, counsel for the Teaching Council, Kate Egan, prosecuting barrister, said the teacher had dishonestly fabricated a document dated May 11th, 2023, which had been provided to him by the General Teaching Council of Northern Ireland.

Egan said the teacher had subsequently submitted the forged document to the Teaching Council as part of his application for registration.

The inquiry heard he made further alterations to the amended document after he was asked for proof about completing induction as a teacher in Northern Ireland which he submitted to the Teaching Council on June 14th, 2024.

 Egan said the teacher also sent a number of follow-up e-mails over the following four months in which he again made statements about his teaching qualifications and experience which were untrue.

The barrister explained that there were differences in the registration systems between the two jurisdictions, with teachers in Northern Ireland being able to register without completing induction and early professional development.

The barrister said changes made to the documents suggested the teacher had completed both his induction and early professional development in Northern Ireland as they were requirements to be registered in the Republic.

In evidence, the teacher admitted he had made “a serious lapse of judgement.”

He explained that he had completed his induction while working at a school in England after qualifying and subsequently completed early professional development on the advice of a school principal after he returned to Northern Ireland for work.

The teacher stressed that he had met the requirements to register in the Republic but did not have the documentation to prove it as he had struggled to find documents from 15 years earlier to prove his credentials.

“I found myself at a loss to get the information I required to the Teaching Council,” he observed.

He offered an apology to the Teaching Council and outlined how he had been unable to withdraw from his “bad decision.”

In a submission on sanction, Egan said the teacher had behaved dishonestly with actions that were “deliberate and premeditated.”

She pointed out it was not “a one-off incident” but demonstrated “a pattern of misleading the Teaching Council.”

Egan said the regulatory body believed a period of suspension was the appropriate sanction given the seriousness of his behaviour and the potential harm to the public.

However, the teacher’s solicitor, Eoin McGlinchey, said his client had tried to circumvent a process of registering with the Teaching Council which he had found “challenging and stressful.”

Urging the inquiry panel to impose the lower sanction of censure, McGlinchley said the teacher, whom he described as “passionate and dedicated”, had ironically met the requirements of the regulatory body but had foolishly provided it with a false document.

The principal of the teacher’s current school, where he teaches geography, provided a character reference in which she said she was aware of the allegations against him but believed his actions were “out of character” for someone who was “a valued member of staff.”