In an election year, education becomes a hot topic. Both Parties attempt to gain the high ground, demonstrating to the voters that Party A is much more committed to the grand endeavour of educating the young of the nation than is Party B. The media then joins in, and journalists become education experts. Administrators of educational sectors and Union chiefs begin to give their opinions. This year it is about a national curriculum. Missing to date are the voices of those who know best, those who actually run schools. The debate might be better-informed were their opinions to be requested.
Perhaps a reason why the School Principals, and their national professional organisations, have been largely silent on this matter is because the chorus of those demanding a national curriculum is singing so badly out of tune, and has confused the terminology greatly, and is arguing mainly with catchy simplifications. One editorialist, a known Cassandra, argues that "the laws of physics do not change in the middle of the Murray", employing nicer alliteration than the PM did when he described "some elements" of an unnamed curriculum as "incomprehensible sludge".
The start for this debate seems to have been aberrations advocated in the English syllabus for WA schools. They have been rightly decried, but one bad apple does not mean the whole case is to be thrown out – in this instance the case is the richness of the diversity of curriculum offerings through the nine systems we have in the Australian States and Territories. Another kick to the debate was the ranking of Australia as 29th in the world as regards the teaching of Maths and Science. To suggest that a national curriculum would raise such a ranking is a non sequitur. Such surveys are restricted in their criteria, and are wobbly in their helpfulness when trying to apply them. Anyway, it would not be difficult to find another survey that gives a much better score!
What muddies the debate is that some of the commentators listed above use the word 'curriculum' and 'national curriculum' when in fact they mean standards of performance. Put simply, curriculum refers to content, and standards assessment refers to measurement. There could well be more agreement if the advocates were to urge some type of national standards test, to check that all the educational sectors in Australia were maintaining sufficient levels of learning.
The headlines often