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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-03-25 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Teacher Education

The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN (15:18): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills a question regarding education students in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. A.L. McLACHLAN: It was reported in The Advertiser in February this year, that South Australian universities have voiced concerns over the government's policy of forcing education students to obtain master's degrees. They have warned that, if a compulsory master's pathway is enforced, many more students could end up studying for longer but, potentially, gaining less practical experience. The head of the School of Education at the Adelaide University, Jan Keightley, has called upon the government to address the need to introduce a diversity of pathways for teaching students. My questions for the minister are:

1. To what extent was the minister's department consulted and had input into the decision to impose a compulsory master's pathway?

2. What evidence or research did the government review and consider when deciding to introduce a compulsory master's pathway?

3. Does the government intend to review the current practical teaching requirements of the master's program in light of current public comment?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (15:19): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. Indeed, this government has made its position quite clear about its desire to improve the quality of teaching here in South Australia.

From 2020, all new South Australian teachers will be required to have a master's qualification, with further qualifications required for preschool directors and school principals. The South Australian public school system will be the first in Australia to work towards such high standards across the board. Outside of parent support, the most effective way to lift the quality of our children's education is to lift the quality and the status of teachers and educational leaders, and that is a well established fact.

It is our vision that South Australia have the highest quality teaching workforce in Australia. To help this along, the government is offering 240 scholarships between 2015 and 2020 to enable teachers already in schools to undertake a master's. The state government is constructively working with the universities and the Teachers Registration Board to implement the policy. We have also been consulting with the schooling sectors.

What is clear is that we will require federal government support for additional commonwealth-supported postgraduate places from 2017. In our dialogue with the universities, some of the universities have identified that that could be a considerable impediment for them and could disadvantage master's positions from other disciplines, and so we have indicated that we are prepared to pursue commonwealth government support. The state government is currently in the process of formally approaching the commonwealth government to seek these additional commonwealth-supported postgraduate places on behalf of the three universities, and if I recollect correctly, that correspondence has already been sent.

This initiative is part of the state government's high-quality education policy, and success with both of these tasks requires strong cooperation and support from the universities and, most importantly, the willingness of the federal government to lift the caps on those postgraduate places that are required for entry to a profession.

A recent national review of our education sector was conducted, and it was extremely disappointing. Some of the findings in that show a less than desirable standard of teaching across the nation. It was a very disappointing finding and a real wake-up call to us to do something about elevating teaching standards across the nation, and, if the nation is not prepared to do it, then our Premier, Jay Weatherill, has made it very clear that this state will lead the way.

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