Curriculum must be fit for purpose

Coming just a few months after the national curriculum was reviewed, the news that primary school principals find it “impossible to teach” is concerning, especially in light of Australia’s falling education standards. The Australian Primary Principals Association has blamed a “confusing” curriculum, red tape and “micromanagement’’ for driving teachers out of the profession. Its criticisms need to be considered carefully by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority and education authorities. Education Minister Jason Clare will soon be meeting his state and territory colleagues to discuss potential solutions to the nation’s teacher shortage.

APPA president Malcolm Elliott described the revised curriculum – which had its content cut by 20 per cent in April – as a “millstone around people’s necks’’. Literacy and numeracy must remain “the foundation stones of learning’’, he told The Weekend Australian. That is correct. Too often in recent years, poor performance in the basic building blocks has impeded students’ progress in secondary school, in vocational and technical training and even at university level and at work.

Mr Elliott told a Productivity Commission review of the national school reform agreement that the primary and early childhood curriculum was too crowded, and “impossible to teach if taken literally’’. For that reason, parents and other stakeholders look to principals to use their initiative and experience to prioritise the “basics’’ in their schools’ classrooms. ACARA chief executive David de Carvalho said the new curriculum had involved “extensive consultation and input from subject, curriculum and teacher experts, including primary teachers and experts’’.

APPA also complained that education departments were “constantly measuring … in the hope that results come from increased micromanagement’’. This resulted “in mediocrity in a measurement-induced mire as schools struggle to respond”. Principals and teachers felt “confined by a morass of measurement, which kills initiative and creativity’’. That said, the advent of greater accountability through better assessment and reporting has been a necessary improvement in education in recent years.