'Concerning amount' of trainee teachers failing basic literacy and numeracy test
A disturbing report card will be released today on the nations trainee teachers, with 10 per cent of would-be educators failing a pilot test on basic literacy and numeracy.
Education students will have to pass a new literacy and numeracy test from July next year to become registered teachers, with nine out of 10 participants passing the recent exam.
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In August, 500 education students sat the pilot test across Australia, with 92 per cent passing the literacy section and 90 per cent passing the numeracy section of the exam.
If the results were replicated nationally, approximately 1800 students would have failed this exam.
Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said:
"It is great to see the overwhelming majority of students passed the literacy and numeracy test."
"However, while the majority of initial teacher education students who sat the test passed, it is concerning that up to one in ten did not."
Senator Birmingham said the aim of the test is to encourage universities to only accept students who are capable of ranking within the top 30 per cent of the population for literacy and numeracy.
"We need to ensure those students graduating from teaching courses can cope with the demands of teaching and have strong literacy and numeracy skills."
If a student fails the exam, they will be offered specialised support from their university before re-sitting the exam.
The federal government adopted the national literacy and numeracy exam following a review of teacher training that recommended against minimum entry requirements for teaching students.
Additional information released earlier in the year by the federal Department of Education showed one in five teaching students had a tertiary entrance rank of 80 or above.
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