Bligh fails National Curriculum test
Friday, 25 June 2010 14:02
The Bligh Government’s decision to abandon the introduction of the National Curriculum in 2011 is an admission of their woefully inadequate preparation.
The LNP has been warning the Government for months that they were completely unprepared for the introduction of National Curriculum and that it risked being a disaster for Queensland schools..
You can’t make a massive change of this nature without extensive professional development preparing our dedicated teachers and without significant additional resources into our schools.
Under the circumstances the Government was forced into abandoning the 2011 introduction.The recent State Budget showed significant real cuts to education.
The associated issue of the move of Year 7 to high school from 2014 is in an equal state of disarray. The move planned by the Bligh Government as part of the introduction of National Curriculum also completely lacks either the planning or the resources for an introduction by that date.
These issues are some of the largest changes to education in a generation and have caught the Government out both with its extensive failure to plan as well as its lack of willingness to provide the resources that such reform needs.
The Government’s recent discussion paper “A Flying Start” even failed to mention the option of using Middle Schooling as an alternative to simply shifting Year 7 to high schools.
Their has been extensive support for the introduction of a National Curriculum but what this shows is that the devil is in the detail and the Bligh Government was not up to the challenge of planning and resourcing such a change.
The LNP continues to support in principle the idea of a National Curriculum but it must be associated with adequate resourcing and professional development to ensure Queensland students don’t lose out.