A major shake-up to the New South Wales primary school curriculum has been unveiled. The state government says the changes will lift education standards by de-cluttering syllabuses and introducing some content earlier in a child's development.
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00:00These are the minds the future is counting on.
00:04I want you to think of a really good adjective,
00:07not a boring sentence.
00:09Now the guide to shaping tomorrow's brains has been rewritten.
00:13The syllabuses provide the backbone for teaching.
00:16OK, on Monday I ate...
00:18New maths and English syllabuses
00:20began in the state's primary schools this year.
00:22Today the remaining four were released.
00:25Some of the syllabuses within this curriculum
00:29haven't been updated for 20-plus years.
00:31Currently, civics and citizenship
00:33is not dealt with explicitly until high school.
00:36Under the new curriculum,
00:38students will start learning about democratic values in kindergarten
00:41with the rule of law taught from Year 5.
00:44The subject of the human body will be introduced in primary school
00:47with lessons about muscular and skeletal systems from Year 3.
00:51Students will learn about the solar system in Year 3
00:54instead of Year 5.
00:56There will also be classes on consent.
00:58It's a reflection of our cultural expectations
01:00that students are educated about these things.
01:02The reforms have been in the works since 2018,
01:05when a two-year review began.
01:07They were big books.
01:09They weren't particularly practical or easy.
01:12The former government planned to make
01:14the entire new curriculum mandatory next year,
01:17but now schools have until 2027.
01:19We were very ambitious in our reforms
01:21and we made no apologies for that.
01:23While the latest international education rankings
01:26have put Australia in the top ten countries
01:28for academic performance,
01:30the nation's standards have slipped since the early 2000s.
01:33The Education Minister is hopeful
01:35the revamped curriculum will help reverse the trend.
01:38Hopefully, in the next few years,
01:42we will start seeing a lift.
01:44Good job.
01:46In times when intelligence is needed more than ever.