Tony Smith (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education and Training. I ask the minister to update the House on the recently released Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group report into teacher training and to further advise what the government's response to the report is.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Casey for his question. I can tell him that, in more good news from the Abbott government, we are getting on with the job of improving student outcomes for students at school in Australia, this time by improving teacher training. We have already moved to expand explicit and direct instruction and phonics teaching in remote schools. We have already reviewed the curriculum and begun the implementation of a more robust and rigorous curriculum for our students. We have already expanded autonomy for independent public schools to over 1,500 schools in Australia with the cooperation of the states. So we on this side of the House are getting on with the job of actually delivering real benefits to students.

A couple of weeks ago, I released the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group report on teacher training at our teaching institutions in Australia. It found that there were some notably good exceptions of good practice, but there was far too much bad practice in the teacher training of our students at university. And, of course, that has been identified by the OECD as the most important factor in Australian schooling for bringing about good student outcomes for our students.

So we have announced that we will reaccredit all teaching institutions in Australia. They will be required to jump through a number of very important hoops before their accreditation will be confirmed. There are 48 teaching institutions in Australia. They will have to prove that they have rigorous selection criteria, including a combination of both ATAR and non-ATAR factors. They will have to introduce a literacy and numeracy test for undergraduates which they must pass before they are able to graduate from a teaching institution, before they can get licensed. We will introduce a primary school specialisation in science and maths and languages so that primary school student teachers have the opportunity to expand a specialisation rather than being generalists.

Teaching institutions will have to prove that their students are engaged in practical, in-school training from the very earliest stage of their training at institutions, including with experienced teachers who have been recently in the classroom rather than for decades in institutions. And we are going to require students to produce a portfolio of evidence as part of their training throughout university so that they graduate being able to actually teach students, not just knowing about education theory. They will not be allowed to graduate unless they can prove that, including in phonics.

So we are putting our money where our mouth is as a government by actually trying to improve student outcomes, this time through the training of teachers at universities.