FACULTY FOCUS
campusreview.com.au
‘Brought to tears’
Is the LANTITE contributing to
the ‘collapse’ of the Australian
teaching profession?
By Wade Zaglas
W
hen Campus Review published
an opinion piece by Mihad Ali
highlighting her frustration with
the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial
Teacher Education (LANTITE), it sparked
a debate online both on our Twitter and
comments page.
While many readers argued that strong
literacy and numeracy skills are the bedrock
of teaching, others blasted the standardised
nature of the test and the fact that students
can progress as far as three‑quarters
8
through their teaching degree only to fail
the LANTITE and not enter the profession.
Concerns were also raised that diversity
and reasonable adjustments to the
test based on medical disabilities were
not being dealt with adequately by the
Australian Council for Educational Research
(ACER), such as not providing extra time to
complete the test for some students.
Now, one of the architects of the test,
Professor Greg Craven, president and
vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic
University, has denounced the LANTITE,
telling The Daily Telegraph that rather
than weeding out prospective teachers
with substandard literacy and numeracy
skills, it has led to the “collapse of the
teaching profession”.
Craven explained how applications for
teaching degrees in NSW between 2016
and 2019 dropped by 57.3 per cent, and first
preferences for teacher courses plummeted
by 40 per cent.
While the ACU vice-chancellor said the
LANTITE was initially established as an exit
exam for teachers to further develop their
skills, he said changing it to an entry exam
would be “a tertiary massacre”.
Such has been the effect of the LANTITE
and students’ waning appetite for teaching
degrees that Craven warned NSW is already
importing teachers from other countries
and said the trend would continue.
After Ali’s opinion piece, several teaching
students who had failed the LANTITE test
once (or multiple times) contacted Campus