Extra Australian Curriculum resourcing welcomed

The AEU welcomes the announcement from DECD Chief Executive, Keith Bartley, on 30 November that the Government has approved two additional pupil-free days each year until 2017 for the implementation of the Australian Curriculum in both primary and secondary schools, as well as the establishment of a Secondary Schools’ Australian Curriculum Implementation Team.

The Teachers’ and Leaders’ Workload Review required by the 2010 Arbitrated Award has identified the implementation of the Australian Curriculum as the greatest current stressor currently facing the education workforce.

This workload win is something the AEU has been fighting for over the past twelve months.  We are very pleased that the Government has now acknowledged the need for greater resourcing for major curriculum change.  AEU members have consistently pointed out that the provision of pupil-free days is far more productive than other forms of support, such as TRT days, for such critical professional planning.

The provision of two pupil-free days from 2012 until 2017 is a timely acknowledgement by the Government and the Education Minister that the introduction of a huge change in the school curriculum requires adequate support from the employer. 

Given the 2010 Industrial Relations Commission finding that the workload of teachers and leaders was ‘excessive and unsustainable’, the allocation of additional pupil-free days for the introduction of a new curriculum goes some way to addressing the extra work and planning that such implementation necessarily involves.