Education Minister Julia Gillard has rejected opposition criticism that the draft national curriculum fails to address key events in Australian history.
Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne on Tuesday complained the document made no reference to the Magna Carta or the Westminster parliamentary system, on which Australia's political system was based.
Ms Gillard said it was obvious Mr Pyne hadn't read the draft curriculum, which would explicitly teach children about the nation's administrative system and how it came to be.
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"What Mr Pyne has done is hit the word search function on his computer," she told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
Coalition 'wants to review curriculum'
"Well, if he was a kid in grade seven and he turned in an essay like that, he'd be given a fail."
Mr Pyne has flagged the coalition wants to review the national curriculum, and scrap it if it doesn't measure up.
"What we need to do is have a thorough examination of this curriculum after the election, review it and decide if we want to scrap it and start again," he told the Macquarie Radio Network.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd accused Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and his team of political obstructionism.
"What's Mr Abbott's A, B, C? It seems to be A is for argue, B is for block, and C is for criticise," he said.
"Argue against everything. Block practically everything. And criticise practically everything."
Implementation 'key'
But Independent Education Union spokeswoman Christine Cooper said it was time to move beyond discussing the document's detail and start looking at how it would be implemented.
"The success of the national curriculum will depend on the extent that teacher engagement and resources are applied at the state and territory level," she said.
Ms Cooper called for all jurisdictions to urgently establish broad stakeholder consultation committees, to examine the local implementation needs.
Ms Gillard acknowledged retraining teachers to deliver the new learning goals would be a big task, but stressed it was possible.
"Each jurisdiction and each school system currently teaches teachers to rollout their state-based curriculum," she said.
"We will harness that effort and refocus it on teaching teachers to rollout the national curriculum."
Trial in coming months
The curriculum, due to replace state and territory standards in 2011, will be trialled by 150 schools around the country during the next three months.
Ms Gillard was unapologetic about its hasty delivery.
"Kids only get one go at school and every year that goes by, that's another school year that's gone, that's another school year those kids will never have again," she said.
