2007-03-01 Labor plan focuses on four key subjects - The Australian

Justine Ferrari, Education writer March 01, 2007 RECOMMENDED reading lists of Australian and classical literature for high school English students will form part of a national curriculum under a federal Labor government. Under the plan outlined yesterday by Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd and education spokesman Stephen Smith, a national curriculum would specify what students should be taught in the four key subjects of English, maths, the sciences and history. The curriculum will also detail essential skills that Australian students should have by the time they leave school. The detailed content and skills would be developed by a National Curriculum Board, headed by an eminent educationalist. The ALP plan envisages a national curriculum that would explicitly state the content to be taught for the different levels of education at pre-school, primary school, secondary school and Years 11 and 12. The policy document released by the ALP yesterday outlines basic tenets in the four core areas. In English, students need to know how to spell, how the language works, and to be skilled and articulate users of the oral and written language. "Young people should be able to read an opinion piece in a newspaper with a sense of the intentions of the writer, and the way the writer's views have affected the language used and the evidence cited," it says. As an example, primary school students should understand basic grammar such as using a full stop at the end of a sentence, and should meet consistent spelling competency levels. Students need "a framework of knowledge about mathematics" so they can recognise the mathematical basis of information about the economy, use maths in their work and understand the "use and misuse" of statistics in public debate. Maths students in the early years of school should be able to solve problems, understand multiplication tables, fractions and the placement of decimal points, and identify geometric shapes. In science, students need to recognise the science underlying such matters as nuclear power and global warming, what counts as scientific evidence and judge arguments and evidence "claiming to be scientific in support of particular social, economic and political positions". Science students in the later years of primary school should understand scientific concepts such as gravity and the solar system. History students should have a historical framework of how the nation evolved, and "the capacity to recognise and handle evidence and arguments in the contemporary world". "What we want to ensure for the future is that no Australian kid misses out on key national facts when it comes to how our country's evolved," Mr Rudd said. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21304921-601,00.html