A maths teacher has escaped a classroom ban because of the high standard of her work after she lied about her qualifications to land a job in a school.

Sehrish Hussain admitted forging a Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) certificate to secure a post at Manor Croft Academy, in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, when she was still studying for her teaching exams at university at the time.

A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel ruled that Miss Hussain’s actions failed to “uphold public trust” in teaching and brought “the profession into disrepute”.

However, the three-person panel added that it would not ban her from the profession because it recognised that she was “a highly rated teacher of secondary level maths”. She went on to gain her QTS certificate.

The panel heard that Miss Hussain submitted a fake QTS dated 27 June 2017 to the school in order to secure a teaching post. She also told academy officials “on one occasion or more” that she was a qualified teacher.

The panel said: “This is clearly dishonest and lacking integrity and was done in order to mislead the school and maintain her employment there.”

However, the TRA said Miss Hussain had proved to be a good teacher, with strong recommendations from her previous and current employers.

It added that when the maths teacher made her false claims she was under “significant pressure” at home as she supported elderly relatives through a period of ill health. 

Teacher ‘showed genuine remorse’

The panel recognised that Miss Hussain did finally gain her QTS certificate in January 2018.

It also said that the teacher admitted what she had done and demonstrated “substantial and genuine insight and remorse following these events”.

The TRA said that although Miss Hussain had committed “a serious and dishonest error” it was, however, “a one-off incident”.

It concluded that a banning order was not an “appropriate response” and that publication of its findings was enough to show the standards of behaviour that were acceptable in the profession.

This was accepted by Alan Meyrick on behalf of the education secretary. He said: “In my view, it is not necessary to impose a prohibition order in order to maintain public confidence in the profession. A published decision, backed up by remorse and insight, does, in my view, satisfy the public interest requirement concerning public confidence in the profession.”