Pride in flag, Western culture, and soldiers in schools: Coalition unveils education plan

The Coalition has announced a plan to rewrite the national curriculum, slashing units on Indigenous history and culture, sustainability, and engagement with Asia, and instead emphasising “pride” in the Australian flag and Western culture.

The speech outlining the opposition’s plan to crackdown on behaviour and discipline in schools including by encouraging ADF veterans to become teachers, comes less than a fortnight after Australian students recorded their worst maths and reading results in international testing .

“Our academic performance is worse than ever. Our boys are disengaged and falling behind. Our classrooms are disrupted and, in some cases, dangerous. We don’t have enough teachers, but it’s also harder than it used to be to become a teacher,” Leeser told a Sydney event on Saturday.

“Parents and teachers are in a day-in, day-out fight against screens. And all of this is going on while we are pouring more money than ever before into our schooling system”.

Programme for International Assessment (PISA) results released earlier this month showed 15-year-olds are now two and a half years behind teenagers who went to school at the turn of the millennium. Australia’s results remained above OECD averages because other countries’ performance suffered sharper declines.

Nationwide NAPLAN results released last month showed little or no improvement on the previous year , with one in three students failing to meet national numeracy and literacy benchmarks.

“Our policy is a policy that is unashamedly framed around excellence.