National Curriculum

Julia Gillard with  Andrew Barr

Labor is committed to delivering a world class education system to ensure Australians are armed with the knowledge and skills to meet the demands of the 21st Century.  As part of this commitment, the Labor Government has released, for final consultation, Australia’s first national curriculum.
Key policy points

The national curriculum covers the subjects of English, maths, science and history and will be taught nation-wide from 2011.
 

• The English curriculum has an emphasis on the basics.  This includes critical skills like sounding out letters of the alphabet and grammar
• Maths will focus on essential mathematical skills in number and algebra, measurement and geometry, probability and statistics.
• The science curriculum will ensure students develop the skills they need to live in a technologically advanced age.
•  A key feature of the draft Curriculum for history is the treatment of Australian history within a regional and world history context. This allows students to better understand the richness of the Australian story.

Further details on the curriculum's content are available here.

Labor is committed to an equal and transparent education system and believes every student can be challenged to achieve at a high level.  Australian parents can now be confident their child is being taught from a world class curriculum regardless of the school they attend or their location.                                                                    

The national curriculum defines standards of achievement for each year level.  For the first time, every student, parent and teacher will know what is expected at every stage of schooling.

The 80, 000 families who move interstate each year can now be assured their child’s education will not be disrupted.  They will now be able to move schools without the disadvantages of having to learn a new curriculum and will benefit from a nationally consistent education system.

This curriculum is world class. It is one of the first in the world to be delivered online making it  dynamic, and easily updated, unlike the static, hard-copy form which currently exists in each State and Territory.

ACARA will hold public Information Sessions for the draft Australian Curriculum around Australia.

This is a significant achievement; 110 years after Federation Australia finally has a national curriculum.  This is one element of Labor’s Education Revolution which is transforming Australia’s education system to meet the demands of the future.

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