Here in NSW, there has been a lot of coverage relating to the Government's plans to increase standards for graduate teachers and to attract those with a higher academic ability.
The plan will only allow teachers to become qualified in NSW if they have received a Band 5 (80 %) or more in a minimum of three subjects. One of those subjects must be English.
Universities will still be allowed to enrol students for teaching courses if they don't meet the requirements but they will not be allowed to undertake practicums. Hence they would be ineligible to graduate and become qualified teachers in NSW.
I do have one question relating to the proposed standards. In NSW all students study one of the following English Courses in order to receive a Higher School Certificate:
1. English Advanced
2. English Standard
3. English as a Second Language.
Students who do English Advanced can also undertake the following one unit courses:
1. English Extension 1
2. English Extension 2
Lets focus on the three main English Courses.
English Advanced is generally undertaken by more academically able students as opposed to English Standard. English as Second Language is undertaken by students where English is not their first language.
So under this system, a student who gains a band five in any of those courses would be eligible to become a qualified teacher in NSW.
This means that students who may opt to do a more challenging English courses may be punished for simply doing that unit because their level of English is not regarded as "good enough" despite the fact that they have opted for a more challenging course.
Given that English subjects cater to different levels of student abilities, shouldn't the focus be on either:
1. Imposing a minimum standard for English proficiency.
2. Adjusting the cutoffs for each English subject.
3. Require students to complete a certain English subject e.g. Satisfactory completion of English Advanced.
The State Government needs to be clearer on the standards or otherwise those who do have sufficient proficiency in English will miss out because they have opted for a more academically challenging course.
