Outlook conference: we’ll raise teacher bar by weeding out, says Mark Scott

The NSW government will weed out poor quality teaching graduates by withholding jobs if universities don’t lift course entry standards.

NSW Education Department head Mark Scott. Picture: David Geraghty

The NSW government will weed out poor quality teaching graduates by withholding job offers if universities resist calls to lift course entry standards, the state’s top education bureaucrat says.

Education Department secretary Mark Scott said the government faced opposition from universities towards its bid to raise the bar for entry to study to ­become a teacher.

“The NSW government — having pushed that point hard but faced significant opposition from universities — is now going to use its power as an employer,” he told the 2018 Outlook Conference yesterday. “They can enrol who they like but if those people are not going to get the jobs … those universities will have to respond.”

Mr Scott’s comments come after the NSW government ­announced tough criteria for prospective teachers, including a minimum credit-grade point ­average in their studies. Teacher candidates will have to prove sound practical knowledge and ability, and undergo psychometric testing of cognitive and emotional intelligence to be employed in the NSW school system.

The new Teacher Success Profile policy comes amid concerns school leavers with very low ATARs have been ­accepted for education degrees.

Mr Scott said he anticipated a decade of “very significant change” for the university sector, which would need to respond to employers increasingly taking charge of the knowledge and skills their employees attained, and how they attained them, and the growing requirement for employees to be lifelong learners.

“I think market realities are going to come to bear on this,” he said. “The idea of ‘come and give us your next four years and $40-$50,000’ … I think students are going to query that, parents are going to query that and employers are going to query that.”

Mr Scott said school education policymakers “need to think through the kinds of skills, ­capabilities and mindsets young people will need to flourish’’.

“There once was a model that you went to school to be educated, and education prepared you for work,’’ he said.

“We know now that what education is preparing people to do is to spend their life learning.”