SCHOOLS — MANDATORY CONSENT EDUCATION
911. Hon SOPHIA MOERMOND to the Minister for Education and
Training:
The
minister recently released an updated draft version of the Western Australian
school curriculum for consultation with
teachers that includes a mandate for tiered consent lessons for children in
pre-primary up to year 10. Considering this, I ask the following.
(1) What
consultation is being undertaken with religious schools to ensure they also
include mandated consent classes?
(2) How will
parents be able to have input into the draft curriculum update?
Hon SUE ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
I have a written answer that I will
provide in a minute, but, just by way of background, honourable member, the
curriculum that applies in Western Australia applies to all schools, whatever
sector they are in—public schools, private schools, independent schools
and Catholic schools. The School Curriculum and Standards Authority has
established a number of curriculum committees, and professionals from all
sectors participate in those curriculum committees on particular subject areas.
In addition, as I have announced—it is literally in the media statement
that I issued on Tuesday—the draft
curriculum is now online for anyone to comment on. People are welcome to do
that, and that is why we made the
announcement. Once that commentary is received, SCSA will go back to the
profession, across all three sectors, and consult further on the
content.
The formal written answer is as
follows.
(1)–(2) Religious schools and parents are able to provide
feedback to the School Curriculum and Standards Authority on the proposed inclusion of consent curriculum
within the pre-primary to year 10 Western Australian health and physical
education syllabus. This can be done by completing the survey on the authority's
website, which has been published as part of the public consultation process.
The authority also has a dedicated parent and community section on its website
which also provides a link to the survey. The authority continues to work
closely with the Association of Independent Schools WA and Catholic Education WA
to ensure the implementation of the mandated Western Australian curriculum and
assessment outline—pre-primary to year 10—in faith-based
schools.