The NSW government wants to make it easier to fire underperforming teachers and more difficult to enter the profession.


NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli launched a discussion paper on Tuesday - titled Great Teaching, Inspired Learning - which aims to "increase the professionalism of the profession".


Mr Piccoli said ATAR entry scores for would-be teachers were often too low.


"We graduate 5500 teacher graduates and employ between 300 and 500 (a year)," Mr Piccoli told reporters in Sydney.  "We do have to look at teaching from a supply-and-demand perspective.  We are graduating a lot of undergraduates, and as a result the ATAR scores for some of the undergraduates are quite low.


ATAR scores ranged from less than 50 to the high 90s, Mr Piccoli said.


"Below 50 is not the kind of score that we want for school teachers."


But Mr Piccoli said he didn't believe teaching was being used as a fallback profession.  The discussion paper raises the question of sacking underperforming teachers in a less bureaucratic way.


"It's not an easy process to remove an underperforming teacher," he said.  "One of the big questions in a discussion paper like this is, how do we remove underperforming teachers in an effective way.  A quick, non-bureaucratic way but that also respects the rights of the teacher."


Mr Piccoli will consult with Catholic and independent schools, universities and teacher unions on the review process.


Consultation will run until November 2, with an online forum to run between August 24 and October 5.