Education Minister Alan Tudge slams school over controversial flag assignment

Education Minister Alan Tudge has slammed a Brisbane school which set students a task to describe why we should change the Australian flag.

While Aussie athletes go for gold in Tokyo, Australian students are being taught to denigrate the flag and anthem they are competing under, according to federal Education Minister Alan Tudge.

Pointing to a civics and citizenship class assignment for Year 7 students given out at high school in Brisbane’s northern suburbs, Mr Tudge said it was a clear example of how some in the education ­establishment are trying to “undermine our country, its symbols and institutions”.

The exercise calls for students to “complete a three-minute speech to the Youth Parliament on why we need to change the Australian anthem or flag to reflect the values and identity of Australian society today”.

“In the middle of the Olympics, where the country is singing the anthem and waving our flag, this is what the school sets?” Mr Tudge asked.

“It doesn’t even give students the opportunity to take their own position. Rather, they have to say why the flag no longer reflects us.

“Mainstream Australia is sick to death of those elements in the education system trying to undermine our country, its symbols and institutions.”

Mr Tudge pointed to the ­assignment as an example of why students are doing so poorly in civics and citizenship education.

Earlier this year, tests revealed that just 38 per cent of Year 10 students and 53 per cent of Year 6s were able to achieve a “proficient” standard in civics and citizenship, ­reflecting a continuing slide in their understanding of the workings of Australian democracy that has been occurring for at least a decade.

Currently, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) is taking feedback on a draft revised curriculum in all subject areas.

Education Minister Alan Tudge says kids are being taught to hate the Australian flag. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

The proposed new curriculum has been roundly criticised for being too politically correct, emphasising negatives in Australian history, and fails to encourage national cohes­ion at a time when regional and global threats are at a high.

“Teaching impressionable children that the National Anthem and the flag do not represent all Australians is both irresponsible and divisive,’’ Dr Bella d’Abrera from the Institute of Public Affairs said, adding it was designed to cause kids to “hate their country’’.

Originally published as Education Minister Alan Tudge slams school over controversial flag assignment