Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We need to talk about our national curriculum. Students right across Australia are currently leaving school with lower comprehension of basic skills than their contemporaries had only a decade ago. We are also seeing a decline in Australia's educational standings on an international level. In the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment, known as PISA, Australia used to be one of the top 10 countries. We haven't been in the top 10 since 2009. We are currently ranked 29th for maths, 15th for science and 16th for reading. We are now in long-term decline and are lagging behind countries like Poland, Portugal and Slovenia—countries that we used to outrank.

The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority published their proposed new national curriculum in April. The news should have been met with positive media coverage and support from federal, state and territory education ministers, academics and teachers, praising the inclusion of particular concepts and methodologies. Unfortunately, this couldn't be further from the truth. Indeed, much of the media coverage highlighted concerning key elements of the proposed curriculum. We saw the removal of Australia's history, which used to describe our nation as a secular, multifaith society with a Christian heritage. Instead, it states that Australia is a 'culturally diverse, multifaith, secular and pluralistic society with diverse communities, such as the distinct communities of First Nations Australians'. Minister Tudge, along with the state education ministers in New South Wales, South Australia and even in my home state of Western Australia, went on to criticise elements of the review. One of their key criticisms was the exclusion of direct instruction, a method of teaching with over five decades of evidence proving its effectiveness. Instead, the proposed curriculum is still influenced by the constructivism theory, which promotes student led inquiry learning over explicit learning.

Earlier this month we saw more than 40 people, including maths professors and teachers, warn ACARA in an open letter that the draft plan to fix the unambitious national maths curriculum will make it worse and that further elimination and weakening of fundamental skills will contribute to the root cause of Australian students slipping in international comparisons. 'The students end up knowing less mathematics,' they said. Although ACARA has said that the draft curriculum borrowed from the Singapore curriculum, one of the letter's signatories, maths teacher and University of New South Wales PhD candidate Greg Ashman, noted that students in Singapore learn times tables in year 2 or 3.

The Institute of Public Affairs recently published polling which also shows that the proposed national curriculum is not supported by everyday Australians. Many parents are worried that their kids are being indoctrinated and taught to apologise for and be ashamed of who they are. In March this year, a school in Victoria forced boys to stand at assembly as a symbolic gesture of apology for the behaviours of their gender. These aren't small-fry concerns. These aren't lone criticisms from fringe commentators. These are some of our best and brightest in the field of education telling us that something is dangerously wrong. There are clear indicators of a larger problem within the proposed curriculum. Our education system should not become captive to social issues that aren't related to the core purpose; nor should it be reliant on the ability of teachers to instil historical narratives through their own relative lens.

We need to get back to the core purpose of education. Education should be about preparing children to contribute to our community by leading a good and productive life. We should not sacrifice our children to the woke agenda—to the detriment of their ability to think critically, to analyse the world and to grasp and apply concepts. This curriculum review is an opportunity for us to work on improving what our children learn and how best for them to learn. I urge anyone who is concerned about our kids' education and what they have been taught in schools to make a submission to the review. It's as easy as sending an email. It's time to get back to basics and stop the—

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Senator O'Sullivan.