The provincial government has initiated an investigation into the B.C. College of Teachers amidst allegations the agency is dysfunctional and getting too close with the teachers' union.

Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid announced Tuesday she has tasked Victoria lawyer Don Avison with meeting the college council and stakeholder groups in order to review and report on the agency.

The college oversees discipline for teachers in private school under guidelines set out under the Teaching Profession Act.

"I received a request from the college council, including the council chair, requesting provincial assistance in reviewing the B.C. College of Teachers to ensure it is operating as mandated," said MacDiarmid.

The review request has the support of groups representing trustees and parents and was signed off by the majority of elected and appointed council members, MacDiarmid added.

The government news release announcing the review doesn't mention the B.C. Teachers Federation, but concerns have been raised in recent weeks about the relations between the council and the union.

Council chairman Richard Walker wrote an opinion article published in a newspaper on May 6 saying the union has too much control over the council.

He said that in seven years, 270 complaints were made by parents and other members of the public against teachers, but not one of them resulted in the discipline of any teacher.

In a statement released to media after the announcement, Jim Iker, BCTF's Second Vice-President, said the federation supports the mandate of the college but said its current chair and registrar have engineered a "manufactured crisis."

"The BCTF looks forward to the opportunity to meet with the fact finder to express our concerns about the actions of the current chair and registrar that have needlessly heightened a sense of dysfunction within the college council," Iker wrote.

The fact finder, Don Avison, is the former president of the Research Universities Council of B.C. He has also worked at the federal, territorial and provincial level, including working as the deputy minister of B.C. education.

He will report to the Minister of Education with his findings in September.

The news comes on the day RCMP announced charges against a grade two teacher working for Sardis Elementary School in B.C.'s Fraser Valley.

With files from The Canadian Press