Attracting the Best and Brightest

In recent debates about Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) scores we have lost sight of what matters most: the recruitment of high-quality candidates to ensure a strong teaching profession. The first is that teaching has a recruitment problem much more than a selection problem. We can introduce all the filters and selection tests we like, but they won’t make any difference unless our governments improve the attractiveness of teaching and demand from our ablest graduates for teacher education places. The second problem is the presumption that universities alone should determine who gains entry to teacher education programs.