Tasmania’s future teachers ranked highest in the nation for literacy skills in a federal test.
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The literacy and numeracy test was introduced in 2016 to ensure university students studying to become teachers were in the top 30 per cent for literacy and numeracy skills.
This year, Tasmania’s literacy score came in at 97 per cent, the highest in Australia, while numeracy came in at 93.8 per cent.
Five per cent above the national average for literacy and 1.5 per cent above the national average for numeracy, students at the University of Tasmania beat Western Australian students and New South Wales students for literacy skills.
Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the overall 2017 test results were slightly lower than the 2016 results, and that higher education providers needed to take responsibility for who they accepted into initial teacher training programs.
The test was issued to more than 23,000 teaching students nationally.
“It’s critical initial teacher education programs are designed to best prepare students for the demands of teaching and that providers are doing everything possible to help teacher graduates succeed and become effective teachers,” Senator Birmingham said.