Universities blame a new requirement of five-year study for drop in teacher training enrolment

YOUNG Queenslanders are shunning a career in teaching, with enrolments in education degrees tumbling by a quarter this year. Universities say the new five-year study period is behind the massive drop and something needs to be done.

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YOUNG Queenslanders are shunning a career in teaching, with enrolments in education degrees tumbling by a quarter this year.

University bosses are warning of a teacher shortage at a time when 9000 extra students are cramming into the state’s classrooms every year.

Australian Catholic University vice-chancellor Greg Craven said teaching enrolments had plunged 20 per cent in Queensland, NSW and Victoria in 2018.

“We’ll be importing teachers from overseas,’’ he told The Sunday Mail.

Applications from school leavers listing an education degree as their first preference for university crashed 26 per cent this year to just 4740 students, university data reveals.

ACU vice-chancellor Greg Craven said Queensland and other states might need to start importing teachers from overseas if big drops in enrolments for degrees continue.

But state Education Minister Grace Grace insists Queensland is still on track to recruit an extra 3700 teachers to cope with soaring student enrolments over the next four years.

“In the last three years we have recruited 875 teachers more than those required to keep pace with student enrolment growth,’’ she said.

“The dip in applications for teaching courses starting in 2018 was anticipated and planned for. Teaching is a wonderful career.’’

The state’s biggest teacher training institute, the Queensland University of Technology, has seen enrolments slump 19 per cent this year while the University of Queensland’s new teaching enrolments plunged 44 per cent.

QUT’s executive Dean of Education, Carol Nicoll, blamed a new requirement for specialist teachers to study for five years instead of four.

QUT’s executive Dean of Education Carol Nicoll says new requirement for specialist teachers to study longer is having a negative effect on enrolments.

Starting this year, would-be teachers, who have completed a three-year degree such as science, maths or arts, must now enrol in an additional two-year Masters of Education, instead of a one year teacher training course.

Professor Nicoll said postgraduate applications for teaching courses had fallen 35 per cent this year as a result.

“This is a worry,’’ she said.

“We don’t have enough people coming into teacher education at a time when Queensland needs teachers … this will have a significant impact on staffing in Queensland schools.’’

Professor Craven blamed the Federal Government and the media for “telling people teachers are stupid and no one gets jobs’’.

He said the five-year degree for specialist teachers was turning science and maths graduates off a classroom career.

Professor Craven chaired the Teacher Education Ministerial Advisory Group, which convinced the Federal Government to make teaching graduates pass a tough new literacy and numeracy test.

One in 10 graduates flunked the test last year.

Enrolments in teaching courses at James Cook University have fallen 22 per cent this year, with Dean of Education Nola Alloway blaming “new entry requirements’’.

“There is an upside for our students … there will be even stronger job prospects when they graduate,’’ she said.

James Cook University Professor of Education Nola Alloway.

At Griffith University, which fast-tracks students through a degree in 3½ years, enrolments rose 14 per cent this year.

The collapse in teaching graduates coincides with tough new tests for would-be teachers.

In Queensland, applicants for teaching degrees must write a 1000-word essay explaining why they want to be a teacher.

Starting this year, school leavers must pass English, maths and science subjects if they want to enrol in a teaching degree from 2019.

Q

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham.

ueensland Council of Deans of Education chairwoman Donna Pendergast said the 1000-word essay was an “additional entry hurdle (that) may have acted as a disincentive for some applicants’’.

Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham yesterday said the literacy and numeracy test was vital to “ensure universities aren’t sending unprepared students into the workforce’’.

“A good teacher can transform a student’s life but a teacher without the right skills can also have a lasting impact, for the worse,’’ he said.

A Queensland Education department spokesman said new teachers were paid more than $60,000 a year, while experienced teachers earned up to $100,000 with generous holidays, superannuation and flexible work.

Nelson Reed-Banyard, 18 is studying secondary education at the University of Queensland.

“I found some wonderful role models at school and I wanted to become that,” he said.

“I’m absolutely loving it so far.

“I was talking to mum about how proud I am to have come so far, from being a student who fumbled through high school to now being on my way to going back to high school.”