Students need to learn about Indigenous culture and history, but it must not come at the expense of the core curriculum

We’re in a world where school reports have moved away from ABCD grades and maths classes must include Indigenous storytelling, reconciliation plans and even traditional weaving.

What’s Indigenous weaving got to do with maths equations?

Australian school students need to learn about Indigenous culture and history, but it must not come at the expense of the core curriculum.

Analysis of the national curriculum by the federal opposition reveals more than 2500 ways for teachers to instil national priorities of Indigenous culture and history, sustainability and engagement with Asia into lessons.

As Natasha Bita in The Australian reported on Monday, these cross-curriculum priority themes are called “elaborations”.

What’s Indigenous weaving got to do with maths equations?

Yes, of course they are.

We’re in a world where school reports have moved away from ABCD grades, and describe pupils as “consolidating” and “developing” their learning instead.

Now we hear maths classes aren’t just based around mastering mathematical equations, but must include Indigenous storytelling, reconciliation plans and even traditional weaving.

For instance, in year five, Acknowledgment of Country can be used to teach ten-year-olds about binary coding in computing.

School reports describe pupils as ‘consolidating’ and ‘developing’ their learning. Picture: iStock

There is much to be done to Close the Gap through practical, targeted measures.

Strategies such as the building of new homes in remote communities, more access to medicines, increased funding for domestic violence initiatives and the creation of jobs are more pressing than ever.

However, embedding Indigenous learning – or learnings, as they’re now known – add little to students’ understanding of subjects such as maths, English and science.

They deserve to be taught as stand-alone subjects as part of history and political classes, but I struggle to see what students learning Pythagoras’ Theorem can gain from exploring the navigation of First Nations Australians.

The revelations, which were signed off by the opposition when in government back in 2022, come amid a new crisis in civics education.

As the Herald Sun reports on Tuesday, students are spending less time than ever boosting their political awareness by taking school excursions to parliament houses, volunteering and or doing charity work.

This means they know less about Australia’s democracy, civic history and political system than at any point in the past 20 years, the national report from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority has found.

For instance, twice as many year ten students can discuss the purposes of an Aboriginal smoking ceremony than can identify a donkey vote or understand why non-convicts arrived on the First Fleet.

Sounds like we need less “elaboration” and more education.