States rewrite history lessons

VICTORIA will push for a greater emphasis on Australian history in the national curriculum for senior high school students.

VICTORIA will push for a greater emphasis on Australian history in the national curriculum for senior high school students, as the war of words over the teaching of the subject intensifies.

The national curriculum authority was forced to defend its new Australian history course yesterday after former prime minister John Howard slammed it as "unbalanced" and "bizarre" and accused it of marginalising the "Judeo-Christian ethic".

Delivering the inaugural Sir Paul Hasluck lecture in Perth on Thursday, Mr Howard called on state education ministers to do something about the curriculum.

Last night, a spokesman for Victorian Education Minister Martin Dixon said the state's Coalition government was committed to ensuring there was "no watering-down of the quality and relevance of important subjects such as history".

"The government has indicated to ACARA (the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority) that it believes the draft senior secondary history section needs to reflect a greater emphasis on Australian history," Mr Dixon said.

He said that although the Victorian government was "largely supportive" of the shift to a national curriculum, this should be seen as a "minimum standard" to which individual schools should be able to add.

The national curriculum is being introduced by the states and territories in a staged process, focusing currently on the beginning of school to Year 10.

In response to Mr Howard's criticism, ACARA chairman Barry McGaw said the new subjects had been approved by state and territory education ministers and were not the "Australian government's curriculum".

"The new curriculum sets Australian history in a broad context by having students pay attention to what was happening elsewhere in the world," Mr McGaw said.

"This does not prejudice our western and Judeo-Christian heritage.

"Their influences on Australian culture and our legal practice and political systems are clearly dealt with."

Queensland Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek said he welcomed the former PM's contribution to the debate.

"The key point of Mr Howard's address was that the curriculum must recognise the influences that shaped our system of law and government," Mr Langbroek said.