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Entry requirements for teacher training in England are too low and damage the status of the profession, the Commons education select committee has said. The MPs said graduates applying for post-graduate certificate of education (PGCE) courses should have at least a lower second at degree level. The MPs welcomed government plans to require teachers to hold a licence to practise to "weed out poor performers". Teaching should also be established as a Masters-level profession in time. The cross-party Commons education select committee said it was clear "the bar must be raised across the board". Its Training of Teachers report said: "It is of great concern to us that those with no A-levels, or those with just a pass degree, can gain entry to the teaching profession." A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families stressed that those with no A-levels held alternative qualifications such as advanced GNVQs or the advanced Diploma and did have degrees. The MPs' report said it was essential that entrants to the teaching profession should have a "sound grasp" of literacy, numeracy and ICT (information and communication technology) skills. Currently students have to pass tests in these subjects, set by the Training and Development Agency, at the end of their course. But the MPs said the tests should become an entry requirement for courses and should be made harder. The MPs say funding for undergraduate degree courses for secondary teachers should be scrapped, because of "particularly low" entry qualifications. They also called for the entry requirements for undergraduate primary programmes to be be raised. The report adds: "We would like to see access to post-graduate initial teacher training programmes restricted to those with at least a lower second degree as soon as possible. "This should be with a view to moving, in time, to higher entry requirements still - to an upper-second degree or above." In 2007/08 just 43.5% of modern language teacher trainees, 42.6% of maths trainees and 38.9% of ICT trainees had a first or upper second degree, the report noted. The MPs' report also calls for teachers in England to have a licence to practise which must be renewed on a regular basis to "weed out poor performers" from the profession. MPs also want to see a "chartered teacher status" framework to link professional development, qualifications, pay and the licence to practise. And the teaching profession should be established as a Masters-level profession, with Masters degrees in teaching and learning being a "demanding qualification". The report calls on the government to bring supply teachers into the mainstream of the professions, saying they served an "essential role" but remained neglected. Trainee and newly-qualified teachers should be offered better mentoring and support, the MPs added.