Should teaching become a post graduate degree?

The Herald reports:

Students accepted into teaching degrees have some of the lowest entrance scores across all bachelor programmes, prompting calls to mandate postgraduate entry to lift teacher status and quality.

Education leaders from seven New Zealand universities wrote a joint letter to government last week recommending the move, in a bid to get the “best and brightest” graduates into classrooms.

I think there is merit in this. The current requirements are seen as an easy option by many.

Professor Moltzen said the deans group had come up with seven recommendations on how to lift the prestige of the profession. These included requiring a postgraduate qualification before registration, and raising entry requirements to teaching courses.

“We felt it was important to be proactive. There have been concerns about the status of the profession for as long as I can remember, but I think it’s probably lower now than when I started,” he said.

“I think we can always improve our performance and improve the quality of teachers going into the profession – but I don’t think there’s a message there the profession is failing. The vast majority of teachers care deeply about their students and work incredibly hard.”

Lifting the prestige of the profession would be a good thing. Other initiatives such as Teach First can also help attract people to teaching.