The nation's best students are increasingly deciding against becoming school teachers, research shows.
A report compiled by the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership obtained by News Corp Australia shows more than 40 per cent of students entering the profession in 2005 were drawn from the top echelons but by 2012, the number had dropped to fewer than 30 per cent.
At the same time, the proportion of students entering teaching with poor Year 12 results rose to 13 per cent from less than 10 per cent.
Education Union federal president Angelo Gavrielatos has told The Australian the union supports measures to increase teacher education entry levels and believes a cap on the number of places available is needed.
Mr Gavrielatos also questioned why Education Minister Christopher Pyne had commissioned a review of teacher education and excluded issues relating to enrolment standards from its terms of reference.
The institute's report, which uses customised data provided by the federal Education Department, reveals a startling attrition of the brightest students out of teaching.
It also finds that one in five teaching students are from disadvantaged backgrounds, compared with 15 per cent in other degrees, and teaching also has a greater representation of students from regional areas: 26 per cent compared with 20 per cent.
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