Schools – whether state or independent – have never been good at dealing with incompetent teachers. The procedures are tortuous and time-consuming and the personal nature of the process often divides staff rooms and damages morale. It is easier for head teachers to encourage the miscreant to resign with a reference that allows him or her to transfer the problem to another unsuspecting school.

Ofsted reports suggest that the number of unsatisfactory lessons is falling but many parents will recognise the teacher that everyone hopes to avoid when class lists are drawn up.

Ten years ago Chris Woodhead, then Chief Inspector of Schools, said that 15,000 teachers were incompetent. Despite a series of ministerial initiatives and the establishment of the General Teaching Council (GTC), by last year Sir Cyril Taylor, once the Government’s senior education adviser, put the number at 17,000. Both estimates caused outrage.

However, at less than one teacher per school, the true figure may be higher, many believe. In such circumstances a new approach is certainly needed but there must be doubts about the plans put forward by Keith Bartley, the chief executive of the GTC. As in any walk of life there are degrees of incompetence. Many of the teachers who would appear on Sir Cyril’s list are known as poor performers but have done nothing sackable.

Before the abolition of the probationary year at the end of a teacher’s training, some would have been weeded out. Others are timeservers who will be as hard to remove under Mr Bartley’s proposals as they are now.

The most inept teachers should have been given the chance to improve and, after due warning, ought to be sacked. In a minority of cases a clean slate at a new school, after the right training, will be enough to rescue a career and prevent further damage to pupils’ education. But it is no substitute for head teachers addressing incompetence straight away.

When local authorities, rather than schools, employed teachers, there was a version of Mr Bartley’s idea. Teachers who did not make the grade would be “redeployed” to another school, to the resentment of all concerned. Parents and schools would not take kindly to a return to that system.

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