The Australian education minister has endorsed a “stripped-back and teachable” curriculum focusing on helping students achieve proficiency in foundational skills, which is expected to set a higher standard for educational achievement in the country going forward.
The “decluttered” curriculum, which will come into effect next year, will allow teachers to be able to teach the content with depth and rigour after it reduced 21 percent of the content descriptions summarising what students will learn.
Introduced on April 1, the revised Version 9.0 curriculum will see a stronger focus on English phonics and on mastering mathematical facts, concepts, skills and processes. It will also lift the standards for mathematics in relation to addition and subtraction in Year 1, and proficiency with times tables in Year 2.
History has also been significantly decluttered and is now compulsory in both Year 9 and 10, where it had previously been optional.
