Teachers are being unfairly blamed for the failings of the education system, when in fact they are its greatest asset, Melbourne University’s Professor Stephen Dinham told a gathering of the country’s top pedagogues.

In delivering the Australian College of Educators’ (ACE) annual Phillip Hughes Oration, Professor Dinham has accused the profession of being hijacked.

“When research first showed that teaching is the biggest in-school influence on student achievement, I really hoped this would lead to significant focus on and investment in teachers’ professional learning,” Professor Dinham said.

However, this finding has been twisted and used instead to blame teachers for a wide range of issues.

“The words ‘in-school’ have been mislaid and we now frequently hear of the teacher being ‘the biggest influence on student achievement’, which is untrue.”

 Professor Dinham took the opportunity to warn against panicking about Australia’s performance on international measures, saying that Australia out-performs other countries such as the US, the UK, France and Germany, and is only slightly behind New Zealand.

Mr Dinham lambasted the “simplistic” policies designed to lift teacher quality, including the sacking of the bottom five per cent of teachers, paying teachers by results and giving principals more autonomy to hire and fire, describing the moves as “ill-informed” and “half baked”.

There are signs that Australia is slipping in the international rankings, the equity gap remains an issue and Year 4 achievement is also of concern,” Professor Dinham said.

Instead, says Professor Dinham, there should be a focus on developing teachers’ professional skills.

“We need to concentrate on policies that support our teachers,” he said. “These include ongoing effective professional learning, recognition and reward for teachers who upgrade their skills, excellent training for future leaders and methods for attracting and retaining the most able people.”