Curriculum covers the basics
Today’s year 12 students were playing in the sandpit when the Rudd government and the states agreed in 2008 to produce a national curriculum. The same group was in year 1 when the first version of the curriculum was released in 2010. Their schooling, like the curriculum itself, has not been smooth. Through reviews, overhauls and attempts to inflict ideologies on students, Australia’s education performance comparatively has gone backwards. Australian students, like other students around the world, also have suffered setbacks during the pandemic. After 14 acrimonious years of literacy, maths, history and other educational wars, Version 9 of the curriculum was approved last month and released on Monday. It was finalised after the Morrison government rightly exercised its responsibilities to insist that the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority improve the curriculum’s content. As a result, parents, employers and other stakeholders can be confident the curriculum is now fit for purpose. It covers basic knowledge on which students will build further learning and gain essential skills, especially in science, technology, engineering and maths, for modern workplaces.
The main strength of Version 9 is the attention it pays to the basics – especially teaching children to read using phonics, which research and experience in Australia and around the world show is the most effective method for most children to master the most important educational skill they will need for the rest of their lives. Education system leaders, who have fiddled with experimental reading systems and failed, owe a generation of poor readers an apology for dithering for so long. It is 17 years since Ken Rowe’s comprehensive Teaching Reading inquiry recommended the use of phonics. Given the weight of evidence, it has taken too long. The Morrison government wisely insisted that phonics be mandated in the early years of schooling. University teaching courses and schools need to follow through, with updates for working teachers where necessary. Version 9 is also a step towards redressing the nation’s mathematics malaise. It sets out basic, fundamental knowledge and skills students will be expected to learn and teachers will be expected to teach each year up to year 10. If taught well, it should equip more students to tackle advanced maths in years 11 and 12 as a precursor to gaining the STEM skills and qualifications in strong demand in industry.
On the often vexed subject of history, including Australian history, ACARA has produced more balanced, substantial content than what many students have been given for decades. The history of Australia’s Indigenous people is given appropriate attention. By the end of year 7, students will be able to “describe the historical significance of the ancient past and the histories of early First Nations peoples of Australia”. Such knowledge will be set in historical context. By year 8, students will be able to “describe the historical significance of the periods between the ancient and modern past … explain the causes and effects of events, developments, turning points or challenges in Medieval, Renaissance or pre-modern Europe, or in the societies connected to empires or expansions, or the societies of the Asia-Pacific world during these periods”. The Industrial Revolution, Australia’s involvement in World War I, Anzac, World War II and its major turning points, the Holocaust, the atomic bomb and Australia’s post-1945 development are included to the end of year 10. The civics and citizenship program should give students a working knowledge of the nation’s democracy and systems of government. The foreign language subjects appear interesting and rigorous. Aside from making curriculum planners feel good, it is difficult to see why ACARA has persevered with the so-called cross-curriculum “priorities” of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures, Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia, and Sustainability. Those areas are covered in the relevant subjects.
The curriculum has been decluttered. It focuses on the basics but provides gravitas, with scope for teachers to challenge more able students to delve deeper into subjects. Quality teaching, including direct instruction, guiding older students towards independent research and ensuring a balanced, factual approach that avoids drifting into ideology will be critical to good outcomes. It is unfortunate for young people in their late teens and 20s who struggle with reading and maths that it has taken so long to reach this point. Better late than never, the revised curriculum, well taught, offers a basis for better results.