Page 63 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 25 February 2014
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MS BURCH: I thank Ms Berry for her interest in education and training. Every child in the ACT deserves opportunities provided through an excellent education, irrespective of where they live, their circumstances or where they attend. My message to parents is clear: in our public schools, we will give their sons and daughters the best teachers that there are. The government’s focus in education is squarely on teacher quality, and there has been much research and discussion on this, including between education ministers over the last 12 months.
We have great teachers in our public schools, and our student results show that. But it is time to build on that success and to raise the bar on teacher quality. My aim is to ensure that new teachers to ACT public schools have literacy and numeracy levels equivalent to the top 30 per cent of the population. This is the level identified by the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership as necessary to successfully complete their teacher training. The government will develop a literacy and numeracy test that all new teachers will need to pass before they can teach in our government schools.
While there has been debate around raising the ATAR requirements, I am more interested in assessing teachers at the end point of their training rather than at the beginning. This is the lever that I, as an employer into government schools, have to ensure that only the best teachers are recruited into schools. This means testing for high levels of literacy and numeracy on top of the already rigorous recruitment and teacher registration process. I have asked the directorate to advise me on how best this can be done, with a view to having it in place for next year’s teacher intake.
The government also supports work at the national level on a nationally consistent standard of literacy and numeracy at graduate level of teacher education. Proposed methods include a national online test that all teacher education students must pass before graduation and a national framework for professional experience to pick up on those elements of literacy and numeracy that cannot be assessed on line.
The work will build on the work already done to implement the Australian professional standards for teachers. All our teachers meet the Australian standards and are registered by the Teacher Quality Institute. The initiative that I announced earlier this week is about lifting the bar and raising the esteem of the teaching profession in our community and making a clear statement to the parents of kids in our government schools that I only want to recruit the best of the best and we will be testing to make sure we get them.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Berry.
MS BERRY: Minister, why is it necessary to take this action, and when will it be in place?
MS BURCH: As indicated, I want this initiative to be in place next year, for next year’s recruits. The research clearly tells us that the most influential in-school factor in student achievement is the quality of the teacher. I have no hesitation in demanding the very best quality teaching in our government schools. I want to say as an employer that new teachers coming into the ACT public school system will be the best of the best.
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