Education minister says extra funding for Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership would ensure ‘our teachers are better trained’

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Christopher Pyne has announced nearly $17m in “extra funding” for the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL), a year after the government’s first budget revealed $15m in savings from the same agency.

The education minister said the $16.9m provided over four years would improve initial teacher education and ensure graduates were “classroom ready”.

“The investment I announce today shows we are serious when it comes to ensuring young Australians get the best education available by making sure our teachers are better trained,” he said.

But the funding follows previous belt-tightening at AITSL. Budget papers in May 2014 said the government would achieve savings of $19.9m over five years “through efficiencies in the operations” of the agency, “including a refocus on core priorities”.

Those cuts included funding that had been allocated to the AITSL by the former Gillard government for the Gonski-related national plan for school improvement.

However, the $19.9m saving was offset by an extra $4.9m being allocated over two years to continue the Australian government quality teacher program – meaning the net savings from AITSL in last year’s budget were about $15m.

“The savings from this measure will be redirected by the government to repair the budget and fund policy priorities,” the budget papers said.



In his statement on Thursday, Pyne said it was not possible to provide young Australians with a first-rate education without first-rate teachers.

He said the $16.9m would equip AITSL to implement recommendations of the ministerial advisory group on teacher education released in February. These included the introducing a literacy and numeracy test for initial teacher education students.

Pyne said the in-class practical element of teaching degrees would be overhauled with a focus on how to teach reading, writing and phonics. Better national workforce planning was also on the agenda.

“AITSL will use the extra funding to strengthen what teaching students learn and to develop instructions that make clear what universities must do to gain course accreditation in this new rigorous regime,” he said.



“AITSL will also work with state accreditation panels to improve their assessment of courses. This will include making sure that the panels have the skills and knowledge required to make these assessments.

“AITSL will also be instructed to monitor and revise accreditation arrangements on an ongoing basis to make sure the stronger quality assurance actually impacts on the classroom readiness of graduates.”

The president of the Australian Education Union, Correna Haythorpe, said the $17m in funding would not eliminate the need for schools to be properly resourced.



She said the announcement “could not compensate for the damage to school budgets if the Abbott government failed to honour the last two years of Gonski agreements in 2018 and 2019”.