Renewing Primary School Education
Principals of Australian schools want new focus on primary learning
The Australian Primary Principals Association has called on government to restore primary education to its former special position by adopting a national charter.
2007 is a federal election year and with education policy in the national limelight, the Australian Primary Principals Association has called on Australian government at state and federal levels to provide a national charter for primary education. The aim of the charter will be to give a clear definition of the purpose, core business and expectations of all primary schools in Australia
The APPA President, Ms Leonie Trimper, characterises the primary teacher’s role as a life of disappearing joy. Holding up research and anecdotes to support this statement, she says primary schools are too intense and near to breaking point.
Cluttered Curriculum
Governments expect schools to give equal weight to the eight Learning Areas of the curriculum while also dealing with a host of other needs and issues. These include children’s emotional, nutritional and physical health problems, their interpersonal issues, and a host of other things from road safety to limiting television viewing. As an example, Leonie Trimper points to the fact that, when several children in South Australia were savaged by dogs, all primary schools were suddenly given a kit and told to teach their students all about safe behaviour near dogs.
Ms Trimper calls on state and federal governments to put politics aside in a joint approach to make primary education more effective.
Professor Robson’s Paper
APPA commissioned Professor Greg Robson to write a paper in support of the push. His main points are as follows.
· Primary education in Australia has overall been a real success, but in the last 20 or 30 years it has been under increasing stress.
· Since the 1980s Australia’s education system has been increasingly based on broad statements of goals from K to Year 10 that do not recognise any special purpose or identity for primary schools.
· The trend towards middle schooling has drawn support away from primary schools.
· The primary school is more and more pressed to approach curriculum and structure in the same way as secondary schools.
· The early childhood movement has been shifting the emphasis to the first 8 years of life as the foundation stage of education.
· Primary schools are now in the pincer-grip of insufficient resources and excessive demands, and the squeeze continues to tighten.
Summarising the situation, Prof. Robson writes that primary learning and teaching are under considerable pressure and education authorities have unrealistic expectations of the schools. He believes the primary school needs to be restored to a pre-eminent position in the education system.
The Way Ahead
The paper presents this map to Australian governments for the way ahead:
· Put primary education in the public eye as the key stage of schooling.
· Unclutter the curriculum: clarify the core components of basic education and focus on them instead of trying to emphasise breadth.
· Emphasise the foundational objectives of primary education – development of basic skills, providing a child-friendly environment for learning, and building an effective relationship with the community.
· Facilitate leadership development.
· Build and extend excellence in primary teaching.
· Recognise the limits to how much schools can do without diminishing the quality of education. This will involve releasing them from the need to intervene in areas like health and social work.
Government Responses
Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop has welcomed the Robson report, saying that the state governments should remove the clutter from the curriculum to let primary schools in Australia concentrate on reading, writing and mathematics. A spokesperson said that the South Australian government would be happy to consider the proposal for a charter. No other public statements are yet apparent from governments on the matter. Perhaps when APPA has written a charter there will be a greater response .
