Federal Labor has urged universities to toughen their admission standards for teaching degrees. It comes amid concern the scores needed for entry into courses have dropped.
Labor wants Australian universities to take students from the top 30 per cent of high school graduates into teaching degrees.
Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek says universities need to increase the cut-off marks to get into teaching degrees.
She says teaching should be just as attractive as a profession - as medicine.
"We cannot afford to continually dumb down teaching degrees - to enrol people who will never be competent teachers. It is a waste of time and a waste of money for those students - it is a waste of public funding as well. We are doing a disservice to the profession as a whole if we continue on this path."
Plibersek says universities need to reconsider taking students with low *ATAR scores.
"Work together to ensure that you are increasing the cut-off marks to get into teaching degrees. Make sure that you are choosing students to go into teaching degrees who will be passionate, competent teachers. Ensure that teaching is a first choice, not a fall back for students. Make sure that we are again taking our teachers from amongst the highest achieving students in high school."
The Australian Council of Deans of Education President Tania Aspland says Ms Plibersek's emphasis on ATAR scores is misguided.
Professor Aspland says there is no evidence to show that students with higher marks become better teachers.
"Whether it is 95 or 55 we cannot guarantee that that person has the attributes and the intellect and the communication skills to become a very good teacher and we do find students with high ATARS decide to move on because it is not their thing. So really ATAR is not an indicator of the qualities that are required to become a very good teaching graduate."
Professor Aspland says there is no way that universities would let teaching students loose in classrooms unless they pass a number of difficult hurdles during their years of study.
She says assessment measures - other than ATAR - are important.
"So we like to see a comprehensive system that we implement ourselves across the two or four years to guarantee that we are producing the very best graduates into the profession."
Professor Aspland says a threat to mandate a cap on ATARs of 80 might sound like a quick fix but, in reality, fewer than one-in-four students are chosen on the basis of their ATAR alone.
