By Justine Ferrari
THE two most populous states will delay teaching the national school curriculum in classrooms until 2013.
Only ACT schools will meet the government’s preferred timetable of introducing the courses next year.
The Victorian government has told schools in the state it will join NSW and Western Australia in delaying the implementation until 2013, declaring further changes will be made to the curriculum over the coming year.
Despite claims by the federal government that the states and territories have endorsed the content of the curriculum in the first four subjects as ready to be taught in classrooms, the Victorian government has described next year as a “testing stage”.
“Implementation of the new curriculum in English, mathematics, science and history, including the assessment and reporting of student achievement against the new standards, will now commence in 2013,” a memo to schools says.
The position flies in the face of the federal government’s insistence that the curriculum for students up to Year 10 in the four subjects is finalised, with only minimal changes to be made, and that it has not been delayed beyond the original date for implementation of next year.
In fact, only the ACT will start teaching the new school courses in some of its schools next year, with Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory spending the year familiarising teachers with the new courses and running trials in schools.
Following a meeting of the nation’s education ministers earlier this month, Schools Education Minister Peter Garrett claimed a historic victory when the ministers endorsed the content of the first four subjects.
After the decision, Mr Garrett played down the significance of any changes that might be made before the deadline of October, and how that would affect teachers introducing the courses into their classrooms next year when they could change again.
“There’s nothing but positives in today’s announcement,” he said at the time. “It’s a huge step that’s been taken, one that can’t be gainsayed or understated in any way.”
But the agreement of NSW and Western Australia was on the condition that further “refining and adjusting” of the courses and the achievement standards continue next year, after they argued that the curriculum was not yet ready to be implemented.
Victoria has clarified its position, agreeing with that taken by NSW and Western Australia and issuing a statement that covers government, Catholic and independent schools.
In a memo sent to schools in the final days of the school year, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority says it will spend the next two years trialling and training teachers and refining the curriculum before starting to implement it in 2013.
The memo says the curriculum was approved “for publication for the purposes of trialling” .
“In Victoria, government, Catholic and independent schools will have the opportunity to take part in the process of trialling and validation during 2011 of the new curriculum,” the memo says. “This testing stage ensures that further work can be conducted on developing and refining the curriculum, and that Victoria can continue to inform this work.”
The VCAA will also provide its own version of the national curriculum for teachers, rather than using the documents and website developed by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.
While most states intend to use the national curriculum as an overarching framework for their existing school courses, Victoria intends to include the national courses as part of its state curriculum. The VCAA will build its own web portal by the end of the first school semester next year for teachers in government and Catholic schools, with independent school teachers provided access as an “optional resource”.
The VCAA memo says the new website, called AusVELS, will be a “revised version” of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards.
Earlier this month, the NSW Board of Studies decided it could not endorse the first four national subjects in their current form despite strongly supporting the introduction of a national curriculum. The decision threatened to thwart the curriculum’s adoption, and the federal government lobbied hard to ensure that NSW commits to at least trialling the curriculum next year.
But with the curriculum open to changes until October, NSW will spend another year training teachers before it is introduced into schools. Similarly, WA has said it will not proceed until the curriculum is finalised.
Source: heraldsun.com.au
