New mandatory literacy and numeracy tests for would-be teachers
New teaching standards announced by the Andrews government will include a mandatory literacy and numeracy test.
It’s reported in The Age today that aspiring teachers will be barred from working in Victorian classrooms if they fail a literacy and numeracy test under a tough new approach to teaching standards.
Tom Elliott said it’s an “astonishing” reflection of our education system.
“We’ve got this astonishing situation where you can spend 13 years at school, you can get a sufficiently high ATAR, you can go to three years minimum at university and learn to be a teacher,” he said.
“And yet somehow you’re not sufficiently literate or numerate to teach the things that you’re supposed to be able to do.
“It just seems to me that if you can do 13 years at school and three years at university and not be able to pass that test something is seriously wrong.”
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Dr Pete Goss, School Education Program Director at the Grattan Institute, told Tom Elliott it’s “shocking” that so many people get through the education system and without having built foundation skills.