17 September 2018
Contrary to media speculation over the weekend, there is no review of the Australian Curriculum underway, and there is no ‘shift’ away from what has been agreed for Australia’s students to learn in school.
The Australian Curriculum, which is being implemented in schools across the country, sets the expectations for what all young Australians should be taught, regardless of where they live in Australia or their background. ACARA drew on the best national talent and expertise, and consulted widely to develop the Australian Curriculum, which was endorsed by all education ministers in 2015.
The Australian Curriculum sets out these expectations in terms of eight learning areas and seven general capabilities, with attention also being given to three cross-curriculum priorities.
As agreed by the Education Council – comprising all Australia’s education ministers – ACARA is required to undertake annual monitoring of the effectiveness of the Australian Curriculum and conduct research into developments in curriculum design, including international comparison studies. Copies of annual monitoring reports and international comparisons studies are available.
This work may inform future advice to ministers about refinements to the Australian Curriculum; however, it cannot in any way be characterised as a review or a whole-scale redesign of the curriculum.
ACARA is scheduled to provide advice to education ministers on the potential scope for refinements of the Australian Curriculum in 2019–20. Any actions to then refine the Australian Curriculum will require the endorsement of all education ministers before changes are made.
Robert Randall,
ACARA Chief Executive Officer
ACARA Chief Executive Officer
Background
When preparing advice to education ministers in 2019–20 about the scope of any possible refinements of the Australian Curriculum, ACARA will draw on the following work:
- The general capabilities are already a key feature of the Australian Curriculum. Given the experience of schools implementing the curriculum, there is interest in how they might be given greater emphasis and how teachers might be better supported in the teaching and assessing of the curriculum.
- At the end of 2017, ACARA released literacy and numeracy learning progressions as a support resource for teachers. The progressions help teachers locate the literacy and numeracy development of their students and identify what development should follow.
- ACARA has engaged the Center for Curriculum Redesign for expert advice and assistance as one of the actions under our program of research. Working together with experts from Australia and overseas, the participants of the project intend to produce a blueprint of a world-leading mathematics curriculum that any country could use to inform their own curriculum design.
