social subjects cut from primary schools

The Australian, Justine Ferrari, 2 October 2007; The Age, Bridie Smith, 2 October 2007; The Sydney Morning Herald, Anna Patty, 2 October 2007

 

In August this year, the Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA) invited principals, teachers and parents from
the government, independent and Catholic education sectors to comment on the draft Primary School Charter. After receiving the support of 90 percent of the 1580 respondents, the APPA has released the final charter.

The draft charter stated that primary-school curricula should have four ‘guaranteed’ subjects: English literacy, maths, science and Australian history. It also stated that schools should spend less time on non-core ‘social’ subjects such as music, art, languages, PE and bicycle safety.

However, the final charter does not list history as a core subject. Instead, the fourth key learning area is listed as
‘social education’, which includes history, geography, the environment and cultural studies.

APPA president, Ms Leonie Trimper, says that feedback to the draft charter showed that ‘history was too narrow and conjured images of students just learning dates. People wanted a new term and said it needed to be about geography
and the environment and cultural understanding.’

Even though the Federal Minister for Education, Science and Training, Ms Julie Bishop, agrees that primary-school
curricula should be de-cluttered, she said concerns will be raised if ‘the recommendation in the APPA Charter led to a watering down in the quality of teaching history and geography in primary schools.’

Mr Gregory Melleuish, an associate professor of history and politics at the University of Wollongong, believes that
history should be taught as a separate subject. He argues that ‘the danger with social studies is that it becomes vague
and wishy-washy, and another way of indoctrinating kids with the fashions of the day.’

Yet Mr Nick Ewbank, president of the History Teachers Association of Australia, says that it is important to teach
primary-school students a range of subjects and skills. He said that ‘history is an important part but it's not the only
part of a sensible humanities curriculum and I can understand why the primary principals have done it this way.’

The APPA will submit the final charter to state and federal education ministers at their next scheduled conference.

For further information about the Primary School Charter, visit the APPA website.

 

 

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