Statement to the Senate Clarifies Curriculum

“The Government has compromised on the inflexibility of the National Curriculum,” said Shadow Education Minister Christopher Pyne.

“Kim Carr in the Senate today shifted the Government’s position through the mechanism of a Statement to the Senate.”

“The Government has compromised by inserting into the Hansard Record that will forever sit with this Bill a Statement that the National Curriculum will not mandate against teaching methods or educational philosophies.

“The Minister also specifically made the point that the national curriculum board (ACARA) would be required to make allowances for schools teaching Steiner, Montessori, International Baccalaureate, University of Cambridge International Examinations and other internationally recognised models, to continue offering their specialist curricula.

“The Opposition has held firm all along, in order to protect the choice and diversity in schools that Australian parents want and expect.

“This is the key concession from the Government that we have been looking for, and therefore the Opposition is glad that the Government has now allowed through $28 billion in funding for non-government schools.

“This concession follows earlier concessions from the Government on Tuesday in relation to the Opposition’s other two key concerns that we have been raising since October,” said Mr Pyne.

On Tuesday, the Government conceded to Opposition concerns and accepted amendments to the Bill on two other issues:

- The new Ministerial power to withhold or delay funding based on a school receiving an “audit that is qualified in any way” is now going to be a disallowable instrument: an important check and balance on this measure to ensure that no potential Minister acting in bad faith can use this spurious reason to financially damage a non-government school.

- The Government has accepted that their disclosure clause (relating to “funding sources”) was grossly unfair to schools, parents and donors. A new subclause has been inserted saying that reporting requirements must not “include any information that would identify a particular donor as a funding source of any non-government school or non-government body.

“The Opposition was never responsible for holding up this funding,” said Mr Pyne.

“If the Government had given us this legislative assurance about the National Curriculum from the start, then this would have been dealt with at the beginning of the week!”

December 4, 2008

Media contact:

Adam Howard

0400 414 833