Australian Curriculum delayed

On Friday last week DECS issued a circular from Chief Executive Keith Bartley advising staff of the decision to delay the commencement of the secondary years implementation of the Australian Curriculum by one year.
 
The delay announced by the Chief Executive effectively means that 2012 will be a year of familiarisation with the Phase 1 Learning Areas (English, Mathematics, Science and History) for Year 8 – 10 teachers.

This will be followed by the teaching and reporting of these subjects in Year 8 (and possibly Year 9) in 2013.
 
Friday's announcement from DECS followed a press release from the AEU two days earlier calling on the State Government to delay the introduction of the Australian Curriculum by 12 months.
 
In the release, the AEU said educators are deeply concerned there has been minimal training, scant resources and insufficient time allocated for implementing this massive change to the way they teach and how children learn.
 
“...this (the premature introduction of the Australian Curriculum) will affect teachers' ability to meet students’ existing needs, let alone the challenges presented by the new curriculum".
 
The AEU is pleased that DECS has announced this delay to the implementation of the secondary curriculum. However, there are still considerable pressures on teachers in R-7 schools due to the extra workload associated with the introduction of the new curriculum.

With respect to this, the AEU repeats its call for a 12 month delay to the introduction of the Australian Curriculum for all levels of schooling as has occurred in New South Wales