We need better teachers, not more

INCREASING numbers of students are choosing teaching as a career because education degrees are "cheap and easy", says Christopher Pyne.

INCREASING numbers of students are choosing teaching as a career because education degrees are "cheap and easy", which opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne says is lowering the quality of the profession.

In a speech to be delivered tonight at the Sydney Institute, Mr Pyne says the core challenge in lifting education standards is to improve the quality of teaching.

Mr Pyne says a career in teaching is not appealing to the highest-calibre candidates, with a recent report showing about one third of teaching students have Year 12 results that place them outside the top 30 per cent of their class.

"(The) evidence suggests that increasing numbers of students are choosing to study education because they think it is cheap, easy and it does not extend or deepen the knowledge they gained during Year 12," the speech says.

"When I think about the pipeline of new teachers that we need to address our slipping student outcomes, these are not the characteristics that I would like to distinguish it."

Mr Pyne says the standard government response to improve teaching is to hire more teachers and reduce class sizes, but the evidence shows this strategy is ineffective.

"It's a simple argument and one that has resulted in enormous amounts of wasted government spending for a long period of time," he says.

Instead, reforms should concentrate on improving the quality of people studying to become teachers, teacher training, and the professional development practising teachers receive.

In the speech, Mr Pyne says teacher training is not preparing new teachers adequately for the classroom, and fails to provide practical skills in areas such as managing a classroom, conducting assessments and communicating with parents.

He commits a Coalition government to creating a ministerial advisory board to consider how to build closer ties between universities and schools, and amend the funding agreements between universities and the federal government to increase the levels of mentoring and professional development they provide to graduate teachers.

Mr Pyne also criticises existing professional development programs for teachers, which he describes as a "check-the-box, administrative burden required to satisfy central office".

A Coalition government would make discretionary funding paid to the states contingent on giving schools and principals "genuine autonomy" to ensure schools can appoint the staff they need, and that training for existing teachers is conducted at a school level.

The NSW opposition yesterday outlined its plans to tackle the shortage of scientists, pledging that a state ALP government would provide 800 scholarships over four years to train new maths and science teachers.

State Opposition Leader John Robertson said each graduate under the program would be guaranteed a permanent job in a public school and receive a training allowance of $5000 a year while studying full time.