Make no mistake, we are at war.
From the outset, this government has attacked public education and it is only getting worse.
After a categorical promise, repeated many times, that there would be “no cuts to education”, the Coalition’s first budget slashed $30 billion from the Gonski funding agreement, a cut that remained in their second budget despite a public outcry. University fee deregulation also remains festering on the books.
The December 2013 MYEFO defunded the First Peoples Education Advisory Group. The 2014 budget announced funding for Indigenous language support would be cut by $9.5 million over five years. They also ceased funding for the National Partnership Agreement for Indigenous Early Childhood Development which meant 38 Indigenous childhood development centres across the country will close. Abbott did however find money for more truancy officers.
By December 2013, Minister for Education Christopher Pyne had worked out what was wrong with the education system saying, “I am personally very determined to drive an agenda in literacy that focuses on phonics.”
In January 2014, Pyne appointed Donnelly and Wiltshire to review the national curriculum, ignoring the over 20,000 submissions by experts, the thousands of consultation meetings since 2007, hundreds of draft versions across the many learning areas, and dozens of Ministerial Council meetings, that had led to a result that was in the process of being implemented.
Stephanie Forrest, the IPA’s “expert” on the National Curriculum who had just graduated with a BA in 2013, was quick to give her opinion despite no experience in education other than being a student of ancient history.
“The education minister Christopher Pyne has promised to review the Gillard Government’s National History Curriculum. But the curriculum doesn’t need to be reviewed. It needs to be scrapped.
The curriculum leans towards a politically correct, distinctly leftist agenda, which places undue emphasis on concepts like ‘environmentalism’, ‘socialism’, and ‘multiculturalism’, while denigrating the legacy and achievements of Western Civilisation.”
In 2011, long before he was appointed to do the review, Donnelly wrote an article for the Drum criticising the developing curriculum:
Instead of celebrating Western civilisation, Christianity and Australia’s Anglo-Celtic heritage, priority is given to “Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia”, along with “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures” and politically-correct issues like the environment.
Ignored is the role of the British Empire in spreading trade, technology, education, medicine and a commitment to the Westminster system of government throughout the world and the significance of the Commonwealth of Nations.
On reading the national history curriculum, one searches in vain for a proper acknowledgement that modern Australia is Anglo-Celtic in origin and that our history can only be fully understood in the context of the nation’s Western heritage and Judeo-Christian beliefs and values.
When Christianity is mentioned it is usually in the context of other religions, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism, and there is little recognition of the central role of the Catholic Church in European history and Western culture.
It’s ironic that when many talk of the clash between Islam and the West, and Australia is involved in wars against Islamic extremism in Iraq and Afghanistan, that we appear unwilling or incapable of teaching future generations about the unique nature of Western civilisation and the very values, beliefs and way of life that protect us and offers sanctuary to thousands from overseas.
There is an alternative to the national history curriculum’s politically-correct focus on diversity and difference (code for multiculturalism) and the belief that all cultures are of equal value and worth.
It’s no accident that the Preamble of the Australian Constitution contains the words, “humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God” and that the Commonwealth Parliament begins each daily session with the Lord’s Prayer.
While it’s true that since federation, and especially in the years after the Second World War, Australia has become a more culturally diverse nation, the reality is that the overwhelming majority of those living here can trace their ancestry back to the UK, Ireland and Europe.
It’s also true that the reason why so many millions of migrants have come to live here is because of the peace, prosperity and tolerance that characterise our way of life. A way of life that that will quickly disappear if we fail to teach future generations about what truly unites us as Australians.
Wiltshire and Donnelly spent six months in 2014 supposedly reviewing every single curriculum for every single subject for every single age group. Over $300,000 later they decided they were right. They recommended:
- More emphasis on our Judeo-Christian heritage, the role of Western civilisation in contributing to our society, and the influence of our British system of government
- more emphasis on morals, values and spirituality
- increase the amount of phonics taught and increase the focus on Western literature.
They also warned that “adopting a politically correct approach in areas like sustainability, Asia and Indigenous histories and cultures, and in subjects like history and civics and citizenship compromises the integrity of a liberal–humanist view.” This was enough for Abbott to call a review of ACARA, the national curriculum body, itself.
Remember the IPA’s 75+25 radical ideas to transform Australia? One of its authors, 28 year old James Paterson, has just been installed in the Senate without having to face an election. He has immediately shared his views about education despite appearing to have no qualifications or experience in the area. According to Q&A he was “completing the final year of his Bachelor of Arts & Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Melbourne.”
These were a few of James’ points when he worked for the IPA:
11 Introduce fee competition to Australian universities
12 Repeal the National Curriculum
13 Introduce competing private secondary school curriculums
40 Introduce a voucher scheme for secondary schools
In an interview with Wendy Harmer, Paterson said that many parents are choosing private schools because they believe such schools are “better at conveying the values of a good work ethic, caring for your community and your neighbours and being raised in a way that is socially conservative.” Interesting considering he went to a public school.
According to his maiden speech he is also opposed to a national curriculum, which he seems to regard as a subversive, left-wing document. He believes it should be replaced by competing private curricula. He is also a fan of charter or so-called independent public schools and seems to believe that they will solve the widening gap between our lowest and highest achievers.
Add this to the hysteria about the Safe Schools Coalition and the quarter of a billion for school chaplains and it becomes very apparent that, far from devolution of responsibility to the states, principal autonomy and parental involvement – all those things they talked about before the election – the Coalition is absolutely determined to control what is taught to whom and how.
It has also been reported that the government is putting Scott Morrison’s much vaunted childcare package on hold. What they call childcare, educators know are the crucial first building blocks in learning so, yet again, our children will miss out so the Coalition can buy fighter jets, submarines and bombs and protect entrepreneurs, investors and multinational tax avoiders.
Teachers are taking up the fight to protect our kids and we must all stand with them against crippling funding cuts, the politicisation of education, and the infiltration of a fundamentalist Christian moral agenda. The education of our children is a right for all, not just the elite.
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