Australia: Safe schools become unsafe schools
An architect of the school curriculum
has demanded a stop to the “outsourcing’’ of religious instruction and sex
education to “ideological interest groups’’.
Ken Wiltshire, who reviewed the national curriculum
for the Coalition government last year, said controversial subjects should be
taught only with parental consent.
He said the Safe Schools furore showed the danger of
letting “ideological groups’’ devise lesson plans without Education Department
input.
“Governments should never outsource the development of
curriculum content to interest groups, particularly those with an ideological
purpose or agenda,’’ he toldThe Australian.
“There is no quality assurance. No controversial material
should be taught in schools without the agreement of parents, acting in concert
with the school.’’
Emeritus Professor Wiltshire — a professor of public
administration at the University of Queensland — said the furore over Safe
Schools showed why education authorities should vet any lessons involving sex,
religious, alcohol or drug education.
“We need to learn the lesson of the Safe Schools
agenda,’’ he said.
“We don’t want material creeping into the curriculum
without it being quality assured. You should never outsource the development of
a curriculum to any group with a particular agenda, or blindly accept any
curriculum material they have provided to be used in schools.
“Everyone should have the right to say what they think
should go into a curriculum — but at the end of the day the education ministers
are responsible for the curriculum.’’
Professor Wiltshire said governments often left the
teaching of religion and sex education to outside groups because the issues
were political “hot potatoes’’.
He warned it was unfair for education departments to
expect principals to assess the suitability of religious instruction or sex
education materials taught during school time.
The Safe Schools Coalition — an anti-bullying program
for gay and intersex children — has been broadly criticised over its
ideological agenda, which tells children they are “gender fluid’’ and teaches
them it is “heteronormative’’ to refer to boys and girls, or use the pronouns
“he” or “she”.
Its classroom materials included links to a gay youth
website, Minus 18, which included instructions on penis tucking and chest
binding, and promoted online links to sex shops and gay nightclubs.
The federally funded program — which was not developed
by education or health experts — was co-written by Marxist activist Roz Ward,
who was briefly suspended this month from La Trobe University’s Australian
Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society.
The Andrews Labor government in Victoria is defying a
federal government directive that schools seek parental permission to teach the
Safe Schools program.
Queensland — the only state that refuses to reveal
which schools take part in Safe Schools — this week announced a review of
Anglican Church teaching materials for religious instruction. The Connect
curriculum, published by Christian Education Publications and available
nationally, includes a lesson plan that tells children they “will die’’ if they
are selfish.
The Queensland review follows a decision by the
Anglican Church in NSW last year to remove religious instruction materials that
taught Year 9 students they should “die for their faith if necessary”.
Professor Wiltshire’s co-reviewer of the national
curriculum, Australian Catholic University senior research fellow Kevin
Donnelly, said parents should have to give consent for religious or sex
education in schools, but he disagreed with Professor Wiltshire’s call for
official vetting of religious or sex education.
“Frankly I would not trust them (the national and
state curriculum boards) to design a curriculum for potentially very
controversial, sensitive areas,’’ he said. “They are very culturally Left. The
difficulty would be getting an objective, impartial and balanced curriculum.’’
