The Australian Council of Educational Research’s new report today on ‘out of field’ teaching highlights the need for policymakers to focus on initiatives that improve teacher education, teaching quality and ultimately boost outcomes for students.
The Turnbull Government is focused on supporting a lift in teaching quality through our Student Achievement Plan by setting recruitment targets for teachers qualified in science STEM subjects, ensuring graduate teachers reach particular professional standards and pursuing school access and immigration reforms to fast track the availability of teachers in key foreign languages.
Those reforms will build on the ‘back to basics’ work the Coalition has been doing over the last three years after we accepted the recommendations of education experts to ensure new teachers are ‘classroom ready’ and armed with strong literacy and numeracy skills and subject specialisations for graduate primary school teachers.
The Literacy and Numeracy Test we’ve rolled out with states and territories is one example of the Turnbull Government’s commitment to having the best and brightest teachers shaping the minds of future generations of Australians. The Test ensures our teachers are in the top 30 per cent of the adult population for their personal literacy and numeracy skills.
The Turnbull Government’s funding for Australian students will grow from an already-record $16 billion in 2016 to $20.1 billion in 2020 and will be tied to evidence-based initiatives that include measures to raise teaching quality and lift student outcomes.