The federal Opposition has backed a government adviser’s call for the national school curriculum to focus on foundational skills, as one-third of children struggle to read. Source: The Australian.
Demanding “more reading and less screen time” for students, education spokesman Julian Leeser endorsed criticism from the Albanese Government’s chief education researcher.
Australian Education Research Organisation chief executive Jenny Donovan called this week for ongoing improvements to the national school curriculum to focus on foundational skills and facts.
Mr Leeser said reading and a knowledge-rich curriculum should be the first priority of education ministers when they meet on February 20.
“When one in three Australian children cannot read at a proficient level, this is a failure of the system, not families,” he said.
“Reading is a gateway skill, and it needs to be addressed right from the start.”
Dr Donovan said teachers, and not parents, were responsible to teaching children to read, given that one in three students failed to meet the required standard in last year’s national literacy and numeracy tests.
Mr Leeser also backed Dr Donovan’s call for the curriculum to be made “knowledge-rich”, clearly spelling out the content teachers are expected to teach in classrooms.
He said students need “more reading and less screen time; more facts and less ideology”.
“The research is absolutely clear that shared foundational knowledge is essential, and Dr Donovan is right to raise these issues,” he said.
“I hope (Education Minister) Jason Clare puts this issue first on the agenda for the next education ministers’ meeting – we can’t afford to wait five years to figure out a solution.”
Dr Donovan also called for broader adoption of “explicit teaching” methods, in which teachers clearly set out sequential lessons for each subject and check students understand a concept before they move to the next lesson.
Mr Leeser’s comments reveal the Coalition’s endorsement of fundamental education reforms championed by Labor, which has made explicit teaching, phonics-based reading instruction and student welfare a condition of an extra $16 billion in schools funding to state and territory governments over the next decade.
Mr Clare has also ordered an urgent review of the maths curriculum for the first three years of primary school, in what he described as “keyhole surgery” of the curriculum.
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Opposition backs Labor government adviser’s call to fix school curriculum (By Natasha Bita, The Australian)
