Public primary schools are only given funding for a language teacher if there are a significant number of speakers of a particular language in their local community.
Proposed changes to the national curriculum will also take references to Australia’s ‘Christian heritage’ out of civics in favour of ‘secular’ and ‘multi-faith’.
The parliamentary education committee says textbooks should be mandatory in classrooms and postmodernism should be cut from the NSW syllabuses
Unions and principals warn the government is pushing the new curriculum into classrooms too soon,risking poor-quality syllabuses,under-prepared teachers and short-changed students.
NSW Education Standards Authority chief executive Paul Martin said he believed the idea,where students progress through school according to their ability rather than their age,had merit but implementing it next year “was too radical for the moment”.
Education expert Fiona Mueller says that,while the curriculums of high-performing countries such as Singapore foster a love of the country,Australia’s does not.
Niche year 9 and 10 electives such as game design,the history of the universe and ideation will also be cut as the government puts the broom through the curriculum.
Reactions to the NSW curriculum review have been divided,but all agree the hard part will be making it work.
The government has vowed to cut 20 per cent of high school electives,but some subjects to be slashed have not been studied for years or have just a handful of enrolments.
The government has billed its curriculum review as back to basics,but educators say it is an ambitious and vague plan.
Students will be expected meet acceptable standards before they leave school and will work through syllabuses at their own pace.