Catholic Schools NSW has called for the “ideological” national curriculum to be abolished, as new research reveals more boys are slipping behind girls in their academic performance. Source: The Australian.
Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney said every Australian school should be able to use the newly released NSW syllabus instead.
“Curriculum and education should be about enlightenment, not indoctrination,” he said.
“The national curriculum is very vague and not teacher-friendly, and is not written for practical application.
“Everything looks like it is drafted by the sociology department of a university.
“Australian schools would be better off if the NSW curriculum was rolled out right across the country.”
New research released by Catholic Schools NSW yesterday shows that boys are twice as likely as girls to struggle with reading and writing.
Citing data from the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy, it says boys are overrepresented among the lowest-performing students.
“Boys are twice as likely as girls to score in the lowest performance bands in the literacy domains,” it states. “Even in numeracy, where boys traditionally outperform girls on average, the lowest performers are equally likely to be boys.”
The report suggests that Australia’s “highly disruptive classrooms by world standards are more likely to disadvantage boys’ learning”.
Mr McInerney said the NSW syllabus – which emphasises the explicit instruction of facts and knowledge – would help boys catch up to girls.
National Catholic Education Commission executive director Jacinta Collins, a former Labor senator, said there were “deficiencies‘’ in the national curriculum.
“Catholic systems around the country are working on ways to enhance the curriculum to ensure there is better evidence-based and well-evaluated material available to support teachers in the classroom,” Ms Collins said.
Edward Simons, the executive director of Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools, said he was committed to “ensuring students have access to a knowledge-rich curriculum supported by clear, evidence-based instruction”.
“MACS is currently required to adopt the Victorian curriculum but … we will be examining the best models in use nationally and internationally to determine what will be most impactful for our 120,000 students,” Dr Simons said.
FULL STORY
Election 2025: Catholic schools want to scrap ‘woke’ national curriculum (By Natasha Bita, The Australian)
