National Curriculum 2

A bit of background, which sheds some more light on how this might be proposed to happen ...

JOURNALIST: Minister, you've called for a national exam for Year 12 students, claiming the present State tests are too easy. Just going to the Year 12 exam, you are on the record as saying that a national curriculum would lead to mediocrity. How do you have a national exam without a national curriculum?

BRENDAN NELSON: Certainly through the compulsory years of education I'm opposed to the idea of all our kids being taught the same thing on the same day of the week in every part of the country. But I'm Australia's Minister for Education and also a parent. We're living in a country where we’ve got eight different educational jurisdictions within one country and 84,000 school-aged kids who moved interstate last year. Those numbers are growing exponentially. I can't with any confidence tell you the standards across Australia are uniform, that a chemistry exam in Brisbane is of the same standard as it is in Western Australia. Defence families are paying the highest price for this inconsistency. But increasingly, so too are everyday families, particularly those that are in key businesses.

JOURNALIST: But don't our universities work that out? If you get Year 12 in Victoria you can still get into the ANU in Canberra or for example, or Sydney University?

BRENDAN NELSON: Well, they do have a system of trying to equalise as best they’re able across the jurisdictions the standards that are being met and the standard itself is an issue as you know. For the NSW High School Certificate, I mean, I struggle to understand how 99.2% of students can pass the basic literacy exam for Year 12. I'd like to believe it's the case, but as I said to the Daily Telegraph, I stopped believing in the tooth fairy when I was about 8. I announced during the election that we would move towards an Australian certificate for education. This could take a number of forms. It could, if you wanted to, you could drive total consistency amongst the States. And by the way, on Friday last week, there was a meeting amongst the bureaucrats to have a look at that. Secondly, you can build upon the international baccalaureate which is now being undertaken by 20,000 students in Australian schools.

JOURNALIST: But that baccalaureate, that does have a curriculum?

BRENDAN NELSON: Indeed it does and it's rather interesting that Jenny Macklin who's the deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party, whilst she's saying those things to Australians and criticising me in the process, the alternate deputy leader of the Labor Party Julia Gillard has actually written to me, pleading with me to make money available out of the Howard Government's $1 billion investment in our schools program to get the international baccalaureate introduced in Victorian high schools to the opposition of the Victorian Government. What we're trying to do, Paul, is make sure we've got nationally consistent high standards and that parents know they can get the same consistent education.

This is interesting because while the federal government would like the ACE (Australian Certificate in Education) they say they do not want to implement a national curriculum because "it would lead to mediocrity". HOWEVER, upon reading the ACER report (2006), we learn that the federal government would ensure that each state included 'curriculum essentials' in KLAs.

Transcript from http://www.dest.gov.au/Ministers/Media/Nelson/2005/02/tran130205.asp

And you might want to read an interview with John Laws at http://www.dest.gov.au/Ministers/Media/Nelson/2005/02/tran070205.asp