Draft National Curriculum
Wednesday, 03 March 2010
Federal Member for Curtin Julie Bishop is concerned about key aspects of the proposed new National Curriculum released by the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority.
Covering the areas of English, Mathematics, History and Science, the draft document is available for public consultation to help shape the final Curriculum, which will standardise the topics and requirements of teaching in all primary and secondary schools across the country.
A national curriculum was championed by Ms Bishop when she was Minister for Education in the former Government.
“I encourage all parents and members of the Curtin community interested in the future of our children to have a close look at the draft National Curriculum and provide feedback to the drafters,” Ms Bishop said.
“This is an extremely important document which will affect the ‘what’, the ‘when’ and the ‘how’ millions of our school children are being taught across Australia. This matter is far too important to be left solely in the hands of professional educators.
“Everyone concerned about education in Australia should have a look at the proposals and provide ‘real life’ feedback. People need to clearly tell those designing the Curriculum what they think our children should be taught.”
Ms Bishop said that while some aspects of the Curriculum, such as the greater emphasis on achieving practical literacy and numeracy, are welcome improvements, the Coalition remains concerned with the direction the Curriculum drafters chose to take in a number of other areas such as history and science.
“The Curriculum still seems to be more about political correctness than practical education. Once again the importance of the ‘basics’ is downplayed in favour of the more ‘trendy’ elements favoured by our educational and cultural establishment,” Ms Bishop said.
“While Aboriginal history and culture, the environment, or Australia’s engagement with Asia are all important topics, teaching about them should not take precedence over the basics of our heritage and our history.
“The Coalition believes that students should gain a thorough and comprehensive grounding in the history of their own country and the defining legacy of European civilisation on its development before acquiring a cross-cultural appreciation of the contribution that other cultures and historical strands have made to the making of modern Australia.
“The same principle applies to the study of science. We believe that students should first acquire a sufficiently comprehensive picture of the development of modern science, before they learn about other scientific traditions and their contributions,” she said.
The draft National Curriculum documents are available at http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au and http://www.acara.edu.au/phase_1_-_the_australian_curriculum.html and parents and other members of the community can provide their feedback at http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au until the end of May.
