Primary schools to cut curriculum in half

Media Release, Australian Primary Principals’ Association, 1 August 2007; The Australian,
Justine Ferrari, 2 August 2007; The Age, Farrah Tomazin, 2 August 2007; The Sydney Morning
Herald, Harriet Alexander with AAP, 3 August 2007

 

The Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA) has released a draft of their proposed Primary School
Charter. The draft charter is a response to concerns over the current primary school curriculum.

Funded by the Federal Minister for Education, Science and Training, Julie Bishop says the charter is ‘a world
first and is being developed in response to concerns about cluttered curriculum that has led to core skills being
neglected, particularly in literacy and numeracy.’

Opposition Spokesman for Education Stephen Smith says the draft charter supports the ALP’s early childhood
education policy.

The draft charter recommends that the current key learning areas:

• Arts
• English
• Health and physical education
• Languages other than English
• Mathematics
• Science
• Studies of Society and Environment, and
• Technology

be cut down to four essential key learning areas:

• English (including literacy)
• History (Australian)
• Mathematics (including numeracy), and
• Science

The APPA believes that these four subjects should be placed at the core of the newly proposed primary school
curriculum. APPA president Leonie Trimper argues that over the years, social areas have ‘taken on equal status’
to traditional subjects.

Gone are music, art, languages, PE, bike ed, animal-care courses, drug education, financial literacy, dental
hygiene and manners and social skills. These non-core subjects are considered to be supplementary, and
should be taught only when time allows, provided they do not interfere with the teaching of core subjects.

All supplementary subjects are viewed by many lobbyists as being the parents’ responsibility and should
therefore be taught outside of school. It will be up to individual schools to decide how much time is spent on
non-core subjects.

The draft charter will be distributed to 7000 independent, Catholic and government primary schools across
Australia for review, discussion and parental feedback before it is submitted to federal and state governments.

Health experts, parents and educators alike are worried the draft charter may be damaging in regards to childhood concerns such as obesity and diabetes. The argument on this side of the debate is that a well-rounded education
is essential if children are to have all their development and learning needs met.

The Executive Officer of the Australasian Society for the Study of Obesity, Tim Gill, stated that ‘it's understandable
that schools focus on academic standards, but ultimately, children will perform better when all their other needs
are being met as well, including their social and health needs’.

For further information, visit the APPA website.

 

 

 

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