National Curriculum Update

 

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~ March 2010

Draft national Curriculum released

The draft K – 10 curriculum in the four learning areas of English, mathematics, science and history was released on Monday 1 March. The consultation is proposed to run from March this year through to May, and from April to June on the senior years’ drafts.

State and territory consultations

Along with the consultation forums of the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, the State and Territory education authorities are undertaking consultation activities, including conducting forums.

VIEU believes these state level consultations are vital, not only to answer the consultation questions posed by those running the process, but also to evaluate the draft documents critically in the light of current curriculum knowledge and experiences, and to identify real implementation issues for each state and territory.

VIEU has written to John Firth Chief Executive Office of the VCAA to seek discussions on the Victorian consultation and implementation process.

Implementation

With respect to implementation, the official line is that the planning for this by states and territories is to take into account differences between exisiting curriculum and the draft national curriculum, and that implementation may start in 2011. It is expected that K-10 implementation will be underway in all schools in 2013. For some states and territories 2011, will be a pilot year.

VIEU will be working to ensure that the consultation process is a thorough one, and that adequate time frames are adopted and resources allocated.

As to other areas of the curriculum, initial advice papers for Geography, Languages and the Arts are to be available for public consultation in mid-2010.

The draft curriculum is available on the ACARA website. For a detailed outline of the stages in the development of the national curriculum, as well as access to all associated documents, go to the ACARA Updates for November and December 2009 at www.acara.edu.au