ACARA has released proposed revisions to the next three Australian Curriculum Languages: Chinese for Background and First Language Learners; Classical Greek; Latin; and one Language Framework for Classical Languages. This review is now open for public comment.
In 2015, Education Ministers agreed that ACARA should undertake a six-year cycle of review of the Australian Curriculum to ensure it continues to meet the needs of students and it is best practice. The scope of the review has been informed by ACARA‘s research program, which included:
- Benchmarking the Australian Curriculum against the curricula of the education systems of Singapore, Finland, British Columbia and New Zealand.
- Annual monitoring of the effectiveness of the Australian Curriculum with feedback from states and territories.
- Participation in international projects such as the OECD 2030 Future of Education and Skills project.
- Ongoing feedback from education authorities and teachers.
The Review of the Australian Curriculum commenced in 2020–2021. ACARA worked with key education stakeholders and groups to define the approach and scope of the review. And while the updated Australian Curriculum Version 9.0 that resulted was released on a new website in May 2022. However, the Review’s terms of reference provided for the Languages curricula to be reviewed and endorsed in phases.
AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM: LANGUAGES
As required by the Review’s terms of reference, the languages French, Japanese, Chinese for second language learners and Italian were reviewed and endorsed as part of the first phase of the Australian Curriculum Review. Since then, German, Korean, Indonesian, Modern Greek and Spanish have also been reviewed, endorsed and published on the Version 9.0 Australian Curriculum website. All Australian Curriculum: Languages curricula and frameworks are to be finalised by the end of 2023.
Public consultation on the next three languages and one framework is open for 10 weeks from 4 July to 12 September 2023, including:
- Chinese Background/First-Languages learners (Years F-10 and Years 7-10)
- Classical Greek (Years 7-10)
- Latin (Years 7-10)
- Framework for Classical Languages (Years 7-10)
“We’re pleased to release this latest round of draft revisions to the Languages curricula for comment as part of the review of the Australian Curriculum,” said ACARA CEO David de Carvalho. “The Languages comprise a substantial and important part of the Australian Curriculum. We encourage the community to give their feedback through a survey on our consultation website to ensure the updated Australian Curriculum: Languages is equipping Australian students with the knowledge and skills they need for the future.”
To submit your feedback, please go here.
Further reading:
- The new Australian curriculum
- ACARA releases new Australian Curriculum resource for teachers
- Teaching STEM concepts to early primary students
