(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)
The national curriculum introduced under the Gillard and Rudd Labor governments is to be overhauled.
Education Minister Christopher Pyne has announced a review which he says fulfils an election commitment to implement a world class national curriculum.
He has appointed two critics of Labor's education reforms to conduct the review.
Kerri Worthington reports.
The curriculum introduced under the previous Labor governments is Australia's first national curriculum.
Drawn up after extensive consultation, it was designed to provide uniformity across Australia - replacing separate state and territory-based curricula that were often vastly different.
The Coalition flagged a national curriculum review before last year's federal election, with then opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne pledging not to "throw it out holus-bolus".
Now Education Minister, Mr Pyne has appointed education author Kevin Donnelly and Queensland University Public Policy Professor Ken Wiltshire to head the review.
Mr Pyne has called for a return to what he calls a more orthodox system of education, free of 'partisan bias'.
He says the review is a 'students-first' approach that will incorporate the views of parents, state and territory governments and educators.
"I'm not going to pre-judge the outcome of the national curriculum, but suffice to say there has been criticism of the national curriculum over a lengthy period of time. The criticisms have ranged from it being overcrowded and heavily prescriptive and rigid, through to the necessity to have themes that form the national curriculum at the moment."
Mr Pyne also says the review is needed because the previous government promised a national curriculum six years ago but only delivered -- inconsistently, he says -- on English, mathematics, science and history.
Mr Pyne says Dr Donnelly and Professor Wiltshire will look at the process of how the curriculum is developed as well as its content.
Professor Wiltshire chaired the Review of the Queensland School Curriculum.
He has previously called on state and federal governments to do more to encourage Australian children to learn a second, or even third language, from early childhood.
Dr Donnelly is a former chief of staff to Howard government minister Kevin Andrews and has accused state-based education hierarchies of dumbing-down learning.
He says it's critical to learn from what he says are better-performing education systems like Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Finland.
"We need to look at a curriculum that is teacher-friendly. We need to look at a curriculum that is world's best, to use that cliche. And we need to look at what will be, frankly, cost-effective, because a great deal of money goes into education, a great deal of innovation has occurred, and sometimes I wonder what the outcomes are in terms of has it actually worked or not?"
The announcement of the national curriculum review has sparked criticism from the federal Opposition, the Greens and unions.
Labor's education spokeswoman Kate Ellis says the review is a farce.
"What Christopher Pyne has claimed today is that in six months two individuals can do a better job of coming up with a national curriculum than in five years academic experts all around Australia working collaboratively achieved. This is ridiculous. This is nothing more than a distraction from the fact that this government has betrayed every school student and every parent of Australian children who took them at their word when they said that they were on a unity ticket when it came to school funding models."
The Australian Greens' acting leader Richard Di Natale says it's an attack on the very foundations of Australia's education system.
"Christopher Pyne is clearly a very paranoid individual. He thinks that this is all part of some huge conspiracy. He has a perception of left wing bias in the curriculum because we don't do enough to teach young kids about the foundations of Western civilisation. It's just crazy, fringe-dwelling stuff. And what's his response to perceived left wing bias? Put in some of your right wing cronies. I mean, this guy's hypocrisy knows no bounds."
The Australian Education Union has also reacted angrily, saying the Abbott government should be focusing on implementing the Gonski education reforms instead of tinkering with the curriculum.
The union's federal president Angelo Gavrielatos says suggestions the national curriculum is biased towards the political left are absurd, as it's been designed in conjunction with all the state and territory governments.
"We're very concerned that this may be an attempt to resurrect the culture wars. There's no room for politics in the classroom. Leave the teaching to the experts, leave the curriculum development to the experts and let the teachers get on with the job."
Professor Wiltshire and Dr Donnelly will provide recommendations to the government in mid-2014.
Mr Pyne says he hopes to be working with states and territories to improve the curriculum for 2015.
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