Education ministers to ‘take chainsaw’ to curriculum

The Australian curriculum will undergo a radical overhaul with a focus on key subjects in a bid to reverse declining standards.

• Shock graph reveals where Aussie students are heading
• Unprepared teachers only ‘one chapter ahead of kids’

The Australian curriculum will undergo a radical overhaul with education ministers taking a “chainsaw” to the current, overcrowded program as one of the key actions decided at the Education Council meeting in Alice Springs.

The way NAPLAN results are presented on the MySchool website will also be reviewed with the federal education minister saying the data available will remain unchanged, but the presentation will be assessed to make it more “user friendly” for parents.

“It was agreed there would be changes in the presentation .. a change in the way the material is shown, not a change in data,” Education Minister Dan Tehan said.

The overhaul will focus on key subjects, with an initial emphasis on a maths and science review.

He also said measures from Gonski 2.0 would be fast tracked including implementing learning progressions, to ensure each child receives at least 12 months of learning, to help turn around the “disappointing outcomes” from the recent PISA scores, which showed Australian students were years behind other developed countries.

The ministers also committed to an overhaul of the crowded curriculum to weed out unnecessary topics and instead focus on key subjects, with an initial emphasis on a maths and science review.

“We need to take a chainsaw to it, that is the feedback I get … we need to provide a curriculum that is teacher friendly,” Mr Tehan said.

“We will have a focus on decluttering it so that teachers are able to focus on teaching - we want to give teachers the space to teacher students and to help students learn.”

He said one of the most important decisions taken was ensuring the teaching of reading skills, including phonics, is included in teaching courses and that “decade lasting reforms had been agreed to.”

MORE NEWS:

Radical plan to boost school standards

Where does our education system go from here?

Australian students are years behind other developed countries.

A National Evidence Institute would also be created to arm teachers with the right evidence based research to educate students and enhance outcomes.

Mr Tehan said that the ministers stopped short of committing to funding preschools in a five year block, instead asking that the interim report, done by consulting firm Nous, be finalised and look further into what the minister described as an imbalance of funding between states and territories.

He said they would also look at good enrolment but poor attendance in preschools in rural, remote and indigenous communities.

“We need to make sure investment is going to those that need it most,” he said.

Originally published as Education ministers to ‘take chainsaw’ to curriculum