Christopher Pyne to focus on teacher quality

THE regulator can forget about the quality of teacher training because Education Minister Christopher Pyne has his own plan of attack.

THE regulator can forget about the quality of teacher training because Education Minister Christopher Pyne has his own plan of attack.

As a result of last March's politically charged argument over standards, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency ended up with an order from the then minister, Chris Bowen, to look into teacher education programs.

But Mr Pyne has quickly outlined his ideas for improvement and flagged a new advisory body to inquire into teacher training.

The Pyne approach, explained in general terms at an education conference last month in Canberra, seemed "quite reasonable", said RMIT University policy analyst Gavin Moodie.

Meanwhile, TEQSA's recently published annual report promises that the terms of reference for the survey of teacher quality, together with its methodology, would be out "during the second half of 2013".

Asked about this, Mr Pyne told the HES there was no need for TEQSA to go ahead because he would soon be announcing a ministerial advisory group on teacher education. It's not clear how much work TEQSA will have thrown away in preparations for Labor's quality assessment..

In March, Mr Bowen and his schools counterpart Peter Garrett issued their reform package for teacher education with great fanfare.

This package, which included a TEQSA review, trumped proposals put by NSW Coalition minister Adrian Piccoli. Yet Mr Bowen did not get around to issuing the necessary direction to TEQSA until mid-June. TEQSA cited this as one reason to put off a quality assessment of English language standards.

A revolt by the sector and an anti-red tape report embraced by both sides of politics have placed a question mark over whether the regulator will keep any quality improvement function at all.