have your say: the Australian national curriculum
You may have seen the TV ads about the community consultation for the National Curriculum. Basically, the government is asking for your feedback on the proposed National Curriculum.
Personally, I’m not in support for a national curriculum. I know this is not a popular opinion. If you get the curriculum ‘wrong’, then everyone is wrong. Nor do I believe in a lemming society. National curriculum can lead to national brainwashing. Just some of the quotes from the introductory video makes me raise an eyebrow: “…teachers now know what to teach – it’s really quite explicit…” and “…there should be less in it…”
On the other hand, I teach computers at an Adult Education centre where the main classes are for adult literacy and numeracy. The centre manager noted that most of the students in these classes nowadays are 18 year olds straight out of high school. So in our state at least, something needs to change.
Anyway, rant aside, if we are going to have a national curriculum, then it is a good idea to go online, check it out and have your say as to what you feel should be included.
Even though I originally studied to be an English teacher, it was the Maths curriculum that I was most interested in today. Particularly, I wanted to look at whether they intend to teach money skills. I have to say that I thought the proposed curriculum looked pretty impressive.
I’ve included the PDF of the Senior Maths curriculum below (or you can look at it on the website) but here is a brief overview of what money maths they intend to teach:
Essential Maths: Finance 1
- Wages and Income
- Income Support and Benefits
- Taxes and Deductions
- Buying and Paying for Goods and Services
Essential Maths: Finance 2
- Consumer Credit
- Budgeting
- Payment Plans
- Investments
General Maths: Price Index Numbers
- Price Index Foundations
- A Price Index in Practice
- Use of the CPI to discount the general effect of price inflation over time
General Maths: Financial Modelling
- Reviewing and Extending Simple Compound Interest Computations
- Valuing Assets Over Time
- Simple Annuities and Perpetuities
- Adding to an Investment
That’s pretty comprehensive stuff. I didn’t learn much at all about finances when I was at school. I took Commerce in years 9 and 10, I guess I learned some financial stuff there. A lot of the above I had to learn when I studied accounting after school.
If you’re interested in looking at the specifics of the finance programme, you can look at the Essentials Maths PDF and the General Maths PDF, or just log on and check out the website and don’t forget to have your say on the National Curriculum.
Creating Hours: Time Management For Busy Parents
Creating hours isn’t the usual time management strategy of calendars and schedules. Instead it provides tips and tricks that help you gain control over your time so that those extra minutes here and there add up to extra spare hours over the week, spare hours to read, relax, do hobbies or whatever you please. More than that, this downloadable eBook is tailored to parents who have to deal with the ‘unscheduled’ everyday little emergencies that happen when raising children. For more information click here.
Have you read these posts?
SAVE MONEY AND TIME ON THE GROCERIES
