More than one in ten teachers fail a compulsory test, but could you pass? Test yourself here

Twice as many would-be teachers are now failing an essential literacy test graduates are required to pass before stepping into the classroom compared to 2016. Take the quiz to see if you can do better.

Thousands of trainee teachers are unable to put basic punctuation in a sentence. Picture: Supplied

The proportion of trainee teachers failing an essential literacy test has nearly doubled since 2016, with thousands unable to put basic punctuation in a sentence, new figures reveal.

The Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education (LANTITE), which all graduate teachers across the country must pass before working in the classroom, now has a first-time fail rate of 10.4 per cent for literacy and 6.5 for per cent for numeracy.

Calls are growing for an upgrade of the test, which in 2016 had an initial fail rate for literacy of 6.7 per cent and 7.6 per cent for numeracy.

This means thousands of students who want to teach in schools around the nation are unable to spell words such as exaggerate and disappointment or read a basic bar chart showing student results.

The figures are from 2023 — the latest available — when teachers were given three attempts to pass the test.

Even after they were given a year to improve and two more tries to pass, 7.5 per cent of graduates did not pass the literacy test and 4.7 per cent did not pass the numeracy test in 2023.

It comes as the cut-off scores for some teaching diplomas only require an ATAR of 40, with some experts saying it should be closer to 80.

Australian Education Union Victorian president Justin Mullaly said LANTITE was “not an appropriate assessment of skills for new teachers”.

Teachers were given three attempts to pass the test. Picture: Getty Images

Australian Catholic University Associate Professor Colette Alexander said most of the challenges faced by preservice teachers related to how the test was designed and administered.

“The questions are mixed up rather than progressively more complex,” she said, calling it a

“financial and academic burden on students”.

Central Queensland University educational psychologist Dr Robert Vanderburg said “it would be more transparent and open” if the test results were broken down into statistical subgroups including students’ ethnicity, their location and gender.

“(By releasing results this way) we can see what’s happening and if the test is fair,” he said.

Opposition education spokeswoman Jess Wilson said more needed to be done to make teaching a desirable profession that attracts the highest graduates.

Education Minister Jason Clare said: “We have brought the test forward to the beginning of a teaching degree and we are allowing students multiple attempts to sit the test.

“This gives the small number of students who don’t pass the test the opportunity to reach the standard.”

Originally published as More than one in ten teachers fail a compulsory test, but could you pass? Test yourself here