Courses scrapped in NSW school rethink

Courses in critical thinking, bushcraft, volunteering, law and order, and leadership studies will be scrapped from NSW secondary schools, after the state government declared them “unnecessary”.

Sarah Mitchell. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Courses in critical thinking, bushcraft, volunteering, law and order, and leadership studies will be scrapped from NSW secondary schools, after the state government declared them “unnecessary”.

Following the adoption of the state’s curriculum review — the first in more than 30 years — Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the government was ahead of its target to cut the number of elective courses developed in-house by schools by at least 20 per cent.

Schools would now be able to focus on “core learning areas’’, Ms Berejiklian said. “Removing unnecessary courses allows schools and teachers the time and resources to deliver the essentials for students,” she said.

More than 80 courses offered to Years 9, 10, 11 and 12 will be phased out by next year.

Other courses to go include puppetry, wearable art, global communication and citizenship, travel and tourism, film studies, leather, connecting through ethical media use, environmental studies, social development and outdoor education. The courses were all developed by schools rather than the NSW Education Standards Authority and some overlap with official authority-approved courses such as dance and personal development, health and physical education.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said she wanted to ­ensure schools were delivering high-quality syllabuses to set ­students for success after school.

“New criteria will ensure that courses are only approved where the course provides a high quality elective option for students, and does not duplicate or overlap with existing opportunities within the syllabus,” Ms Mitchell said.

“While courses will be cut, students will still have opportunities to explore their interests. For ­example, courses like printmaking would no longer be stand-alone courses, but they could still be options as part of a core course like art.”

The NSW government has billed its curriculum overhaul as a “back-to-basics approach” to education. A draft of a new streamlined K-2 English and maths syllabuses is expected to be released for consultation in March.

Ms Mitchell has already ­delivered to schools an edict on reading instruction in the early years, and schools will be required to ensure children are taught using a structured literacy ­approach with a focus on phonics.