‘Dud’ teaching degrees to blame for failing schools: Henderson
The blame for declining school standards should be laid squarely at the feet of universities because their “deficient” teacher education courses are leading classrooms into “mediocrity”, says Sarah Henderson.
Speaking at The Australian Financial Review Higher Education Summit last week, Ms Henderson, the shadow spokeswoman for education, said “dud” university courses should be shut down and students refunded their fees.
Shadow education minister Sarah Henderson says explicit instruction should be mandated university teacher education courses. Luis Enrique
These included teacher education courses that were contributing to declining standards in primary and secondary schools which was “a national embarrassment”.
“Twenty years ago, Australia ranked fourth internationally on reading, eight in science and 11th in maths. Now we have fallen to 16th in reading, 17th in science and 29th in maths,” she said.
“The biggest disadvantage a child can suffer is not their postcode, but a poor education which robs them of high-level skills in literacy and numeracy.”
Ms Henderson said that despite a 60 per cent increase in funding, standards had continued to fall.
“This is about the refusal by Labor governments – state and federal – to mandate evidence-based teaching and learning in every Australian classroom including high-impact, explicit instruction and the teaching of phonics.”
The former Coalition government introduced a number of changes, including a literacy and numeracy test for graduating teachers, which failed to lift student performance.
Ms Henderson said at some schools that had adopted the science of learning practises, teachers were “told to forget everything they learn at university, a terrible indictment on our tertiary education system”.
Push on teaching compliance
However, the federal government has accepted recommendations in a report into initial teacher education by Professor Mark Scott following that will give state accreditation bodies the right to read the riot act to education faculties that don’t adopt evidence-based teaching practices.
The government has promised to develop national practical teaching guidelines by the end of the year which will be embedded into all teacher training programs before the end of 2025.
Ms Henderson said that a national ranking of universities would be a step in the right direction.
“While Australia boasts a strong reputation for its educational institutions, the absence of a dedicated domestic ranking system leaves a crucial gap in evaluating and benchmarking the performance of universities,” Ms Henderson.
The Summit heard that a ranking of universities by The Australian Financial Review would be introduced later this year.
The ranking, which is being developed by former University of Canberra vice chancellor Stephen Parker, will use publicly available data on teaching quality and student satisfaction, research performance, overall reputation, employment outcomes and equity and access.
Ms Henderson said a ranking would “serve as a powerful tool for policymakers and funding bodies, offering a data-driven approach to the allocation of resources”,
“Excellence could be rewarded and dud degrees – and there are quite a few out there – could be defunded. Now there’s an idea that will stir a few VCs from their ivory towers,” she said.
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