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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 911 asked in the Legislative Council on 13 October 2022 by Hon Sophia Moermond

Parliament: 41 Session: 1

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.