A leaked report has revealed the Turnbull Government is planning a massive overhaul of the Australian Curriculum without consultation with teachers and with no extra funding or resources to implement the reforms.
The National School Reform Agreement (NSRA) was presented to state and territory education ministers by federal Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham at COAG’s Education Council meeting in Adelaide on 22 June.
The report proposes far-reaching reforms across the curriculum, including introducing learning progressions and online formative assessment across 15 areas of the curriculum in the next two to three years. The report also includes a phonics test as part of a formative assessment tool.
Australian Education Union (AEU) Federal President Correna Haythorpe said that the NSW experience with the Assessing Literacy and Numeracy (ALAN) program had shown these curriculum reforms would leave teachers overwhelmed. She said the changes had no chance of successful implementation without extra school funding and while the Turnbull government failed to include the teaching profession in consultations.
Read the AEU media release here.