ISAAC Taylor is a man on a mission.

The head of psychology at Simon Langton Girls’ Grammar School in Canterbury has his eyes firmly set on getting elected to the General Teaching Council (GTC), an independent national body made up of 25 teachers from across England.

However, he needs to conquer a huge challenge on his own doorstep first.

Apathy appears to be the theme of voting in GTC elections and Mr Taylor admits he has a daunting prospect to tackle.

“A lot of teachers are very cynical about the council and certainly when I was being nominated I came across a lot of scepticism from my own colleagues on why I was running for office,” he said.

Created by the 1998 Teaching and Higher Education Act of 1998, the GTC was set up in 2000 and has three main roles – to regulate teachers and their profession, to act as an independent advisory panel to the Government and to maintain a comprehensive register of qualified teachers in England.

But Mr Taylor feels the time has come for the GTC to change and believes he can be a catalyst for that.

“I think it needs to get back to basics. Good teaching is about inspiring individuals and about helping them to attain their potential and now the GTC needs to think about regulating teaching in a very basic way.”

Voting is already underway and closes on March 23. All teachers across the country are eligible to vote.

Mr Taylor wants to make sure they use their vote effectively.

“It’s about time teachers started taking the GTC sensibly,” he added. “Being apathetic about these elections isn’t the right message and if we can have a 90 per cent turnout, rather than 9 per cent then that’s a positive step forward.”