Explanatory note

These Regulations revoke and replace the Teachers' (Eligibility) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1987 and the Teachers' (Eligibility) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1988. The Regulations provide for persons eligible to teach—

• Regulation 7 provides that a person shall not be employed or continue to be employed as a teacher where he no longer satisfies the health requirements. An employing authority may suspend his employment and the opportunity is given to the teacher to submit medical evidence and to make representations to the employing authority.

• Regulation 8 provides for a person who is not eligible to teach to be appointed only where an employing authority is satisfied that no person who is eligible to teach is available for employment. Such an appointment is normally limited to a period of four weeks.

• Regulation 9 enables the Department to prohibit or restrict the employment or further employment of a person eligible to teach on medical grounds or on grounds of his misconduct, and to direct an employing authority to suspend or terminate a teacher’s employment. The Department must first consult the employing authority and give the teacher concerned an opportunity to make representations to the Department. The Department may remove or modify any such prohibition or restriction.

• The Regulations also make the following principal changes—

  • regulation 10 requires an employing authority to provide the Department with information about any teacher it has dismissed on grounds of misconduct or would have considered so dismissing but for his resignation;

  • new teachers are no longer required to serve a probationary period before their eligibility to teach is confirmed; and

  • the Department may no longer prohibit or restrict a teacher’s employment on educational grounds.