Alannah Mactiernan (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There are quite a number of things that I agree on with the Minister for Education about education and teacher training. We certainly share a view that pedagogy is very important and we share a view that there has been a lack of evidence based teaching in relation to the selection of various pedagogies. I want to commend, as I have done before in this House, the minister's preparedness to fund direct instruction in Aboriginal communities. He has given funding to the Cape York Academy to roll this program out across remote Aboriginal communities, including those in Western Australia. I also support, in part, the principle of school autonomy. It does unleash some potential to do a much better job, but I have to say that it is a bit of a mantra that has been uncritically imported from a very different educational system in the United States. It is perhaps not as significant here in Australia.

It is important that we look at teacher education. The evidence from around the world is overwhelming. Study after study tells us that the ability and training of teachers is absolutely critical for us to be able to lift the general standard of education. Research is showing us that the academic ability and the qualifications of entrants are critical in selection of teachers for a number of reasons. It is showing that there is a strong relationship between their scores on verbal ability and scholastic aptitude and their eventual teaching effectiveness. This is what the research is showing us.

The minister stalled at the hurdle. We share many of the principles and the views based on research from around the world from high-performing jurisdictions, be it Singapore or Finland, that tells us that the entry levels and the academic ability of students when they enter teacher training is absolutely critical. Minister Pyne, unfortunately, has baulked at the hurdle. He has chosen to appoint Professor Greg Craven from the Australian Catholic University as the person to oversee this review. I have personal regard for Professor Craven, but I have to say that the position of the Australian Catholic University as one of those institutions that is prepared to bolt feed people through its system in its pursuit of Commonwealth supported places is regrettable.

We are currently training around twice as many teachers as can get jobs. We are spending over $10,000 per student per year to train people as teachers, and over half of those people are not getting jobs. There are a number of universities that are feeding people through and taking people through with very low ATAR scores or not requiring ATAR scores and using psychometric tests which have been demonstrated to be unreliable indicators of a person’s ability to become an effective teacher. We are literally wasting hundreds of millions of dollars each year training people who are unlikely to become effective teachers.

We have such a challenge facing us. When our PISA performance is decreasing and our NAPLAN performances are not what they should be, for us to be wasting so much money putting people through teacher training programs at universities who are unlikely to ever become highly effective teachers is cruel, in my view. We need to change direction here. We need to bite the bullet and say, 'We want to restore prestige to teaching.' Part of that is ensuring we demand a high standard of academic achievement and academic attainment before someone enters into training as a teacher. We are not just missing an opportunity; we are spending so much taxpayer money— (Time expired)

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