Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education and Training. Will the minister update the House on the steps the government is taking to ensure that our young people are adequately prepared for the jobs of the 21st century?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hughes for his question. I know that he is very interested in how we are expanding science, technology, engineering and maths in the school curriculum to ensure that our young Australians are prepared for the jobs of the 21st century.

In fact, 75 per cent of jobs in the fastest-growing industries in our economy require science, technology, engineering or mathematics qualifications these days. It is quite an extraordinary factoid to remember because it highlights how important it is for us to have a focus on science, technology, engineering and maths right across our curriculum, both in schools and in higher education.

That is why the government is putting in place a number of really important measures: a number of important programs but also two very long-lasting reforms that will have a big impact on science, technology, engineering and maths in our economy. The first of those is to change teacher training in Australia, which is an area we can have a great influence over, to ensure that the colleges that train teachers in Australia do not graduate primary school teachers who are generalists anymore, that they will only be accredited if the primary school teachers have a science, maths or language specialty, because we need more specialist science and maths teachers if we are going to encourage young people to take up science and maths in school and then on into university.

The second thing we are doing is reforming the Australian curriculum. With the cooperation of the states and territories we are changing the national curriculum to give a lot more space in the primary school curriculum to give teachers the opportunity to focus on science, maths, English and the basic foundational requirements of a good education.

Recently, of course, we announced the appointment of Professor Stephen Schwartz from Macquarie University. He was the vice-chancellor there. He is the new chairman of the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. He and his team will have the responsibility of ensuring that by the beginning of next year the national curriculum has been de-cluttered, to give teachers the time to do more depth rather than breadth. This is so that when their classroom has not grasped a concept in science and maths they can take the time to make sure that they do.

We are also supporting mathematics by inquiry with programs like PrimaryConnections and Science by Doing and the P-TECH education facility pilot in Geelong, which is supported by the member for Corangamite. We are bringing back summer schools for STEM students this year, and we are putting funds into ensuring that coding across the curriculum is ventilated. Of course, coding has been in the curriculum and we are ensuring, with $3½ million dollars, that we are ventilating—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would remind those people who have been warned!

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

what is already in the curriculum, which the Leader of the Opposition missed when he read it.