Fresh fight over school curriculum changes

English teachers are objecting to teaching school students how to write technical reports for maths and science, in a fresh fight over the curriculum.

Maths teachers will be able to focus on equations as English teachers are instructed to teach students to write mathematical reports, under changes to the NSW syllabus.​

English teachers are objecting to teaching school students how to write technical reports for maths and science, in a fresh fight over the curriculum.

NSW will change its syllabus for English and maths, to make English teachers responsible for “core literacy skills’’ across multiple subjects, ahead of sweeping changes to the national curriculum next month.

But English Teachers Association NSW executive officer Eva Gold said specialist history, maths and science teachers should be responsible for teaching students to write essays or technical reports.

“To me this says, the others aren’t bothering so let’s load it onto the English teachers,’’ she said. “It is not up to an English teacher to teach students how to think scientifically or historically. Research has shown that students achieve better results when they learn the language of their discipline as part of that subject.

“English has its own literary needs that are much richer and demanding than other subjects – one writes differently for English than one does for other subjects.’’

Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers chief executive Allan Dougan said the issue was “not black and white’’.

“There is a contribution English teachers make teaching young people to write very clear reports and use technical language,’’ he said.

Australian Science Teachers Association chief executive Shenel Basnayake called for collaboration over teaching literacy in other fields of learning.

“The ability to communicate and comprehend scientific information is an important skill for students, and takes a multidisciplinary approach,’’ he said.

“Communicating science effectively needs the involvement of science teachers as we understand the science behind the reporting.’’

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the new English syllabus would focus more on writing skills and grammar, as part of “the most comprehensive curriculum reform in a generation’’.

The spat over the NSW syllabus came as acting federal Education Minister Stuart Robert demanded changes to the national curriculum, due to be signed off by his state and territory counterparts next month.

He said teachers could not possibly cover all the content in the existing history and geography curriculum.

“We want to see mastery in mathematics,’’ he told Radio 6PR. “At present, the drafts before me say you can use a calculator for every area of mathematics. Well, that’s not acceptable – people need to be able to know their times table.

“We think areas of humanity and social science is too packed, it’s too busy – teachers can’t possibly teach all that, so trim down the size of that.’’

Mr Robert said he was concerned that three quarters of maths teachers were teaching out of their field of qualification.

“Right now, 25 per cent of our math teachers in all of our schools are not qualified, formally, to teach mathematics,’’ he said. “And we wonder why we’re struggling.’’

Mr Dougan said the shortage of qualified maths teachers was a “challenge’’ for schools.

Mr Robert also called for all principals to be given the power to hire and fire teachers.