Home > Our Publications > Australian Outlook> 2005 > August

Teachers to be tested

ALL Queensland teachers will have to prove they are competent to remain in the classroom under tough reforms which will force them to reregister and undergo criminal history checks every five years.

Scientists, engineers and other professionals with life ,experience will also be fast-tracked into teaching in a bid to expand the knowledge base in schools.

Education Minister Anna Bligh said the reforms -,expected to be progressively introduced from 2006 - would raise the professional standards of the State's 90,000 teachers.

"The single most important factor in a child's education is the quality of the teacher at the front of the classroom," Mrs Bligh said.

"In light of that , we have to make sure that we are :doing everything to upgrade professional skills and safeguard the quality of the profession.

"Teaching is one of the :areas where people often stay for perhaps their whole working life and it's important that we make sure that teachers are consistently upgrading their skills."

Under the current system, people registering as teachers have to pass a criminal history check and then be registered for life.

The reforms will require state and non-state teachers to renew their registration every five years.

This will include another criminal history check and evidence they have completed professional development and have the latest skills for the classroom.

The Board of Teacher Registration will continue to be responsible for conducting the checks but will be renamed the Queensland College of Teachers.

Teachers need a teaching degree but the reforms will make it easier for people from other professions to enter teaching when they finish a one-year postgraduate teaching degree, which now takes two years.

But Queensland Teachers Union president Julie-Ann McCullough criticised the plan indicating it would lower standards.

"We have some fairly significant concerns," she said.