New teaching graduates fail competency exam

A high failure rate in recently released test scores of primary school teachers has compounded the concern Chileans already feel about the state of public school education.

Sixty nine percent of 3,271 recently graduated teachers failed the 2011 Inicia test, which measures their knowledge and abilities.

Those failures, from tests taken at 49 higher education institutions, were graded ‘insufficient’ while 29% of tests earned the mark of ‘acceptable’ and just 2% ‘outstanding’.

“The results are worrying because they indicate that universities and professional institutes are not providing appropriate training,” said Education Minister Harald Beyer.

The minister said the test would become mandatory; only those who pass it will be able to teach in state schools and performance will be considered when accrediting teaching degrees.

A five-year, US$60 million fund will go towards financing teacher training, with 20 teacher training programmes expected to apply.

Seventy per cent of those who failed the Inicia test studied at universities that did not require a minimum score in the PSU, Chile’s standardised university entrance examination.

But the quality of applicants to teaching courses seems to have been improving since a grant for applicants who obtained over 600 points in the PSU was instituted last year.