Labor must include Physical Education in National

Following the Government's release today of the Crawford Report into Australia's Sports Policy, which calls for a greater focus on physical education in schools, it is time for the Government to drop its opposition to the inclusion of physical education as part of the new National Curriculum, according to Shadow Education Minister Christopher Pyne.

One of the concerning developments that we are hearing from educators on the ground is a withdrawal of resources from those areas that Labor is not including in their national curriculum, to the detriment of those courses. If States are going to scale back and ultimately cease operation of their own local curriculum bodies, then the new national curriculum body must fill the gap for all subject areas.

"The National Curriculum was a Coalition policy adopted by the Labor Party prior to the last election. We support choice and diversity in education and have been calling for the inclusion of all subject areas, including physical education, music, drama, art, technical studies and so on."

ACARA is currently preparing materials for the National Curriculum in English, mathematics, science and history. After these four areas have been introduced, it is proposed that there will be a 'second phase', including geography and languages. After intense pressure from the sector and the Opposition, the Government recently announced that the Arts would be included in the second phase too.

"The Government's ad hoc approach to the National Curriculum is creating bad policy for Australia's schools. The recommendation in the Crawford report for Physical Education's inclusion in the National Curriculum should be accepted by Minister Gillard so that parents may be confident their school will continue to have the resources to offer physical education options for their children.

"A National Curriculum only makes sense if it is comprehensive. Otherwise we will either see duplication of effort between states and the Commonwealth, or we will see certain areas such as physical education miss out on resources."

November 17, 2009

MEDIA CONTACT:

Adam Howard

0400 414 833