Crucial Curriculum Component
Illawarra Mercury
Tuesday February 12, 2008
English Teachers' Association NSW executive director Eva Gold believes resources would be crucial to the success of a national curriculum.
"It will depend on whether the curriculum is supported by adequate professional development for teachers and financial support to allow teachers the time to understand the theory behind the new courses," she said.She said the idea of a national curriculum in itself was not a problem for teachers."But a national curriculum must recognise that Australia has a huge breadth of school types and that the needs of a city school are different to the needs of a school in a rural or remote community," she said.Ms Gold was also adamant that teachers needed to be involved at all levels of the curriculum development process."Time and again we have seen that curriculum dropped from above onto teachers leaves them feeling cold," she said."They need to feel a part of it and that the curriculum has been developed with them for their students." Ms Gold said resourcing, not curriculum, was responsible for a decline in Australia's standing in the international education arena."The state curriculums are all fine, they should all achieve good results," she said."But the reason our international standards are slipping is because public schools are starved for funds and schools in regional and remote areas are not receiving the kind of support they need."
© 2008 Illawarra Mercury