Proposed National Curriculum

The Federal Member for Mitchell, Alex Hawke, is encouraging parents to have a close look at and provide feedback for the draft National Curriculum.

Mr Hawke said the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority had released the draft National Curriculum document covering the areas of English, Mathematics, History and Science.

The draft document is now available for public consultation and that input will help shape the final Curriculum, which will standardise the topics and requirements of teaching in all primary and secondary schools across the country.

"This is an extremely important document which will affect the ‘what’, the ‘when’, and the ‘how’ millions of our school children are to be taught across Australia," Mr Hawke said.

"Everyone concerned about our children’s future should have a look at the proposals and provide real-life feedback."

Mr Hawke said that while some aspects of the Curriculum, such as the greater emphasis on achieving practical literacy and numeracy, are welcome improvements there are concerns with the direction the Curriculum drafters chose to take in a number of other areas, such as history and science.

"People need to clearly tell those designing the Curriculum what they think our children should be taught," Mr Hawke said.

The draft National Curriculum documents are available at http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au and http://www.acara.edu.au/phase_1_-_the_australian_curriculum.html and parents and other members of the community can provide their feedback at http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au until the end of May.