Review of the Australian Curriculum

For broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 16 Mar 2014.

Federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne, concerned that some aspects of the national curriculum were ideologically biased, announced a review in January aimed at evaluating its “robustness, independence, and balance.”

Concerns were expressed that indigenous heritage, Asian influences, and environmental sustainability were required to be woven into all subjects, whereas there was very little about our Western cultural heritage, which has had a profound impact on the development of modern Australia, and almost nothing on the Judeo-Christian foundations that shaped Western civilisation.

There have been calls to restore a focus on Australian heritage derived from Western civilisation, based on the Judeo-Christian tradition; to explore Christianity’s positive contributions to literature, the arts, science, education, and human rights; and to include the study of the Bible as part of the Western literary canon.

All valid criticisms of the new curriculum, but it is practically impossible to escape ideology in one form or another.

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