Nearly one in 10 trainee teachers fails literacy, numeracy test

Nearly one in 10 Victorian teaching graduates risk being locked out of their career after failing a basic skills test required to teach.

Almost one in 10 trainee teachers cannot do basic maths, spell simple words or punctuate correctly, prompting calls for low-performing students to be weeded out of teaching degrees earlier.

The fail rate of the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education (LANTITE), which would-be teachers need to pass to graduate to the classroom, has almost doubled in the past five years.

In 2021, 8.3 per cent of graduates failed the literacy test and 9.3 per cent failed the numeracy test, provisional data obtained exclusively by the Herald Sun shows.

Some teaching diploma courses have lowest selection ATAR scores of just 43.

Past LANTITE tests show some prospective teachers unable to spell words such as disappointment, cannot employ apostrophes, or use a word such as ‘integrate’ in a sentence.

Acting federal Education Minister Stuart Robert said a national review released in February found “significant concerns about the number of students who, despite making it through their course, fail to pass LANTITE and are unable to proceed into the profession”.

“More should be done to ensure earlier suitability to teach, including requiring LANTITE to be passed by the end of the first year of study,” Mr Robert said.

“For all teachers, no matter the year level or subjects they teach, strong personal literacy and numeracy skills form an essential part of the attributes and skills needed to be effective in the classroom.”

He said he would talk to state and territory education ministers about these issues.

Most students have up to three attempts to sit the compulsory assessment which is equivalent to a year 9 NAPLAN standard, putting them in the top 30 per cent of adults.

Nearly one in 10 trainee teachers failed their LANTITE test.

Some students with extenuating circumstances are given five chances to pass the test.

Figures from the Victorian Institute of Teaching show about 5000 new teachers are registered each year in Victoria after passing the test.

But each year hundreds of graduates who repeatedly fail the LANTITE do not go on to become teachers, despite doing three years of study and spending up to $30,000.

The ATAR score for teaching is 70, although in 2022 the lowest selection score was 43.05, for a Diploma of Teaching Education at La Trobe University, figures from the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre show.

Central Queensland University educational psychologist Robert Vandenberg said the failure rate was more to do with students’ stress and lack of experience with standardised tests rather than knowledge gaps.

He runs an innovative program that has helped 3000 CQU students prepare for, and pass, the test.

“You fail the LANTITE three times, that’s it, you never get another chance to graduate and enter the teaching profession. So students do need specific skills to manage that stress,” Dr Vandenberg said.