Coalition wont sign up to curriculum

The Coalition will not sign up to the National Curriculum in its current form, Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education said today.

"The National Curriculum is not an end in itself, it must be an improvement on the existing state and territory curricula or it is not worth doing," Mr Pyne said.

The curriculum has been widely criticised by education experts as 'over-crowded, incoherent and lacking depth', 'a step backwards', 'inferior', 'lacking quality and clarity' and as being 'unclear and not ready to teach'.

"The Coalition has concerns about the content of the history curriculum, which fails to give sufficient in depth study to teaching about why Australia is the society it is today. The history of western civilisation is an afterthought in a curriculum focussed on sustainability, Australia's engagement with Asia and indigenous culture," Mr Pyne said.

"The Government has been largely silent on these issues with the Minister, Peter Garrett, refusing to even condemn comments made last year by curriculum drafters that it is appropriate to teach children that Gallipoli may have been unnecessarily glorified," he said.

"The National Curriculum is too important to become another Labor education bungle. Mr Garrett is process driven when he should be quality driven. I call on him to address some of the real concerns the school education sector and Australian parents have over what Australian children will be taught from January 2013," Mr Pyne said.

January 31, 2011

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