New education curriculum to be unveiled

Literacy and numeracy basics will be at the centre of the federal government's draft
national curriculum, to be unveiled in Canberra on Monday.
The curriculum for kindergarten to Year 10 English, mathematics, science and history
will replace state and territory standards in 2011.

The document, to be officially launched by Education Minister Julia Gillard at a
north Canberra school on Monday morning, will also be available online for public
comment.
Ms Gillard said parents and educators had been calling for a national curriculum for
more than 30 years.
"It's a good thing for those 80,000 students who move interstate each year who have
to confront a new curriculum as well as a new school," she said in a statement on
Sunday.
"It's a good thing for teachers to be able to share resources ... rather than having
to separately reinvent the wheel in every state and territory."
Ms Gillard said the curriculum would ensure children understood English basics, such
as sentence structure and grammar, while algebra, geometry, statistics and
probability would be staples of the maths classroom.
In history, the significance of the Australian flag would be taught alongside key
world events. Science courses would be designed to prepare young people for the
technically advanced society they live in.
Newspaper reports have suggested there will be a strong focus on indigenous issues,
with Sorry Day to be taught as a community commemoration in the same manner as Anzac
Day.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott didn't like the idea.
"You always worry that there will be political correctness run riot in these things,
and I hope those reports are wrong," he told Network Ten on Sunday.
"If that is what we do see, I think a lot of people will be very disappointed."
Ms Gillard has previously said in science just 10 of 237 content descriptions
involved indigenous perspectives, while in history the figure was 39 out of 234.
Australian Education Union president Angelo Gavrielatos criticised the curriculum's
development, saying there should have been more teacher involvement.
"Teachers are professionals trained to develop, implement and deliver curriculum,"
he told AAP.
"We are very disappointed that the curriculum has been developed to this point with
what we consider to be an inadequate level of engagement with the profession."
Mr Gavrielatos said a curriculum document alone wouldn't improve educational
outcomes, and what teachers needed was more resources.
"We still have no details and certainly no associated budget for the implementation
of the new curriculum," he said.