Fears held for national curriculum

For broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 16 Feb 2014.

Concerns about perceived deficiencies in the National Curriculum, now taught up to year ten in most Australian States, has led new federal education minister Christopher Pyne to set up a wide-ranging review.

He has appointed Professor Ken Wiltshire and Dr Kevin Donnelly to oversee the review, with public submissions to be in by February 28.

Writing in Quadrant magazine in August 2013, Dr Donnelly said:

The liberal, democratic values that ensure peace, social cohesion and the rights of the individual can only be fully understood in the light of our Judeo-Christian tradition.  Parliaments around Australia begin with the Lord’s Prayer, the preamble to our Constitution includes the words, ‘humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God,’ and the majority of Australians, while not always churchgoers, describe themselves as Christian.  While there is no state mandated religion, we are a Christian nation.

It would appear that the National Curriculum may be set for a radical makeover.

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.