We lose more than we gain by paring back the curriculum

Abstract

For the last four decades the passe debate about paring the school curriculum "back to the basics" has continued to surface. This time it has been brought about by Education Minister Christopher Pyne on the basis that the broad and inclusive Australian curriculum is not providing students with competitive 21st-century skills. Although arguments are compelling for both "decluttering" and "rebalancing" the curriculum and addressing the learning needs of Australia's most disadvantaged, the call to focus on "the basics" of numeracy and literacy implies the current research-based Australian curriculum does not address numeracy and literacy skills. This is not the case. Numeracy and literacy are rich and substantive elements, inherent across all learning areas as important capabilities.