State of Play

Since coming to office, the Commonwealth government has confirmed its pre-election commitment to advance a national curriculum. It began by establishing the National Curriculum Board (NCB), which then became the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority (ACARA), charged with introducing a phased approach to developing selected subjects or learning areas. English, Mathematics, Science and History were the first to be included in the national curriculum club, to be followed in a second phase by Geography, the Arts and Languages other than English.

The clambering for membership of the club in the second phase and a burgeoning group of ‘wannabes,’ including Health and Physical Education (HPE), in the third phase, has been a disturbing aspect of the process, diminishing the credibility of the national curriculum. It’s led to desperate efforts by advocacy groups to get a foot in the door. While HPE professionals are not resentful of the developments associated with other subjects and learning areas, they are rightly concerned with the way in which the national curriculum is being constructed.