That point was made yesterday by Normal and Model Schools Association president John McKenzie, who is also the principal of North East Valley Normal School, in Dunedin.
The Education Council is consulting teachers about a proposal to raise the minimum entry level to the profession to postgraduate level.
Submissions close on Friday.
The recent proposals did not address key issues facing the profession and the need "to modernise teacher education," Mr McKenzie said.
Having a general or specialist degree which included no practical teaching skills, followed by a teaching-focused one-year postgraduate diploma or degree, was one of a range of pathways into teaching for some people who were the right candidates.
But this would be a "backward step" if it became almost the only way of becoming a teacher.
Association leaders were "dismayed" that some trainees could get as little as "only 11 hours of literacy teaching, 11 hours of maths and nine hours of science" before graduating.
Under the proposed changes, someone with a degree in sound engineering would be eligible to do a one-year postgraduate diploma or degree, then be qualified to teach. This would not "raise the status of the profession" and would not boost "achievement and standards".
The Government should develop a comprehensive pathway to primary teaching which had "generous content studies and lots of practice" in classrooms.
Association schools were set up to provide this practice and successful graduates from those schools also had a "deep knowledge" of the curriculum, and the art and science of teaching. The country needed teachers from more diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, and requiring a costlier postgraduate entry would reduce that diversity, he said.
New Zealand has 27 Government-designated normal and model schools which provide a major teaching practicum facility for universities and other teacher training providers.
Dunedin’s other two normal schools are George Street and Tahuna.
