AUSTRALIA CONSIDERS MANDATORY ARTS EDUCATION POLICY
From The Australian ( image courtesy of the National Library of Australia)
“The time has come to bring Australia in line with the civilised parts of the world as far as arts education is concerned,” leading music educator Richard Gill says. “For too long our children have been deprived of serious well-planned arts education. If we don’t do something about this now, we may miss a vital chance and we will be paying the price for years and years to come.”
The National Curriculum Board’s immediate task is to develop a kindergarten to year 12 national schools curriculum for English, maths, science and history by late 2010. Its second phase will look at geography and languages. Since late last year federal Arts Minister Peter Garrett has been discussing the arts’ inclusion in the curriculum debate with Education Minister Julia Gillard. Garrett’s unprecedented invitation to address today’s meeting is a crucial next step in presenting the idea to the ministers in charge of driving curriculum reform.