This one is absurd but it has to be done.
Long, long ago, in 2021, ACARA threw up a draft mathematics curriculum for public ridicule consultation. The public were duly ignored consulted and ACARA returned to their safe room to prepare the final curriculum, to be approved by the education ministers. It didn’t happen.
The education ministers met in early 2022 but enough people had worked hard enough behind the scenes that Stuart Robert, the Federal minister, refused to sign off on ACARA’s redraft. Instead, as indicated in Robert’s letter to ACARA Board Chair and Haileybury windbag, Lord Derek Scott, the ministers “agreed” that further changes would be made in consultation with “experts”. A couple experts – and many, many more non-experts – were ad hocly consulted, token changes were duly made and a couple months later ACARA’s perverse curriculum was approved. Yay.
Why revisit this painful nonsense? Because an absurd loose end just got tied up.
A notable and nasty, and entirely predictable, aspect of the battle over the redraft curriculum was ACARA’s refusal to show anybody the redraft. Moreover, leaks were difficult to come by because the experts and “experts” chosen to consult on the redraft were compelled by ACARA to sign a blood oath to never reveal any details; this was the reason that Ashman declined to be involved. (Why Ashman was even invited is a separate and interesting question.) Consequently, ACARA could feed their slop to compliant stenographers reporters more than happy to transcribe the slop, and it was difficult to call them on the details.
As long as the education ministers believe that ACARA is competent, or are at least willing to pretend so, there is little one can do to combat this secrecy, but one does what one can. A few weeks after the 2022 meeting in which the ministers declined to approve the redraft, I put in an FOI application with ACARA (and also the Federal Department of Education and Related Stuff): I requested the curriculum redraft along with ACARA’s briefing paper to the ministers (which had been referred to in Robert’s letter to Lord Scott and in a reporter’s slop). Amusingly, a couple centuries later, that FOI has just run its course.
Of course it doesn’t matter one jot now. But, for historical interest, embedded below are the redraft mathematics curriculum and the associated briefing paper (with a few names redacted), released under FOI. If one cares to, one can compare the redraft to the final, published version.
I won’t go into the crazy-long battle to get these documents; any reader foolish enough to care can ask me stuff in the comments. Also, I received the companion (re?)drafts of the other subject curricula but I don’t know that they differ much from the published versions or are of any interest; again, people can ask if they wish. I’m simply relieved that the thing is done.
BRIEFING PAPER
MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM REDRAFT
Heya 🙂 How long exactly did the battle to get the documents take and how many people were involved in that process?
Good question …
I was thinking about it and I’ve probably done enough FOIs, and now know enough, that it’s worth a post generally about doing this stuff.
In brief, ACARA made their decision, then made an internal review, after which I appealed to the Information Commissioner. Before the IC does their review, ACARA has the right to revise their decision, which they did twice. I accepted the second revision.
The process is insanely slow for various reasons, not all nefarious.
I had a colleague who used to say “Some secrets are too good to keep; others are not worth keeping”.