1 in 10 future teachers fail basics

Almost one in 10 of Australia's future teachers have failed a nationwide literacy and numeracy trial exam designed to weed out those unfit to educate the next generation of Australians. About 5,000 teaching trainees - who at the time had not graduated - were tested in every state capital earlier this year with the results published on Tuesday.

Of the volunteers who took part, it was discovered that 8 percent failed to show bare minimum requirements for literacy (reading and writing) skills, while a further 10 percent failed to exhibit adequate numeracy (simple maths) skills.

Following the poor pilot results, the Australian government announced that it will roll out a fully fledged version of the test from 2016 onward, with all graduating students required to pass in order to take control of a classroom.