No. 25 
$3.9 million to establish 
ACT Teacher Quality Institute

The ACT Government is investing $3.9 million over four years through the 2010-11 Budget to establish an ACT Teacher Quality Institute which will be responsible for pre-service teacher education accreditation, teacher registration and certification of teachers against nationally recognised standards.

“The ACT Government believes the most important factor influencing a child’s education is the quality of the teacher in their classroom,” Minister for Education and Training, Andrew Barr, said today.

“We believe teachers should be recognised as professionals and the establishment of the ACT Teacher Quality Institute ensures our teachers are professionally registered and certified against national standards.”

Mr Barr said the formation of the Institute comes as part of an agreed national partnership with the Commonwealth Government which will see the establishment of nationally consistent teacher registration, teaching standards, certification processes for assessing teachers against the standards, and accreditation processes for pre‑service teacher education programs.

“The ACT is already an extremely popular jurisdiction in which to work, with great schools and attractive pay and conditions for teachers,” Mr Barr said.

“The establishment of this Institute, as well as new national consistency, will make it even easier for the ACT to attract the best teachers in the country – to the benefit of ACT students.”

Mr Barr said the Institute will be an independent statutory body reporting through a board of directors to the ACT Minister for Education and Training.

4 May 2010
Media contact:		Paul Kindermann	6205 1690 (w)	0403 600 955 (m)
			paul.kindermann@act.gov.au