Quality teaching and learning is dependent upon appropriately qualified teachers. The provision of high quality, high standard pre-service and in-service teacher education, training, induction, mentoring, professional development and support is pivotal to this.

On the 21st April the Federal Government announced Teach for Australia - a program that aims to recruit graduates in law, accounting, sciences, management consulting or similar careers and provide them with a six-week in-residence training course, before placing them in disadvantaged schools to teach for two years.

In announcing the scheme, the Government claimed that "pathway programs for top graduates such as Teach First in the UK and Teach for America in the US have been shown to deliver better student outcomes and help raise the status of the profession."

This is offensive and demeaning to the profession. It is also untrue.

A study led by Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor at Stanford's School of Education in the United States, concludes that "certified teachers consistently produce stronger student achievement gains compared with uncertified teachers. These findings hold for TFA recruits as well as others…uncertified TFA recruits are less effective than certified teachers, and perform about as well as other uncertified teachers" (Darling-Hammond, 2005).

Repeated surveys of beginning teachers tell us that they do not feel properly prepared for the reality of teaching when they enter the profession. It is inconceivable that a six-week program could adequately prepare prospective teachers for the range of school contexts they will encounter, especially those that are most challenging.

The AEU is committed to the maintenance of the highest standards and quality in all Australian classrooms.