Students walk along the platform after getting off a Sydney light rail tram at Moore Park on their way to school in Sydney, Australia, on May 25, 2020. Mark Kolbe/Getty Images
The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) has indicated it does not intend to conduct a broad public consultation on the terms of reference for proposed changes to how Islamophobia is taught in the national school curriculum.
The matter was discussed during the Education and Employment Legislation Committee’s Budget Estimates hearing on Oct. 29.
Liberal Senator Matt O’Sullivan asked ACARA whether there would be a public consultation process on the proposed curriculum addition.
“In August we asked ACARA to draft terms of reference for a review of the national curriculum on racial and religious tolerance, and within September have agreed those draft terms of reference should go to the education ministers’ meeting,” he said.
“Has the public been consulted at all on those terms of reference?”
In response, ACARA CEO Stephen Gniel said: “There’s not a plan to consult broadly with the public on the terms of reference themselves.”
Related Stories
“Should we be approved to do that work, then we would, as we normally do, go quite widely with who we talk to, as we’ve done with anti-Semitism,” he said.
O’Sullivan then asked whether the review would involve public consultation.
Gniel said ACARA would consult relevant communities and experts but not conduct the broad public consultation typical of a full curriculum review.
Liberal Senator Paul Scarr asked Gniel if the history of Afghan cameleers, who helped develop Australia’s inland regions, would be mentioned in the curriculum.
“I think the first mosque in Australia was built in South Australia … when they first came out to assist in relation to those activities in Central Australia,” he said.
Gniel said teaching Islamic history in Australia would form part of ACARA’s considerations.
“Those are those history elements,” he said.
“I think we’ll certainly be looking at in the next part of the review.”
The discussion comes as federal, state and territory education ministers are expected to consider draft terms of reference for a review of racial and religious tolerance in Australia’s national curriculum in early November, including measures to address Islamophobia.
According to the government, the review could strengthen existing lessons on racism and religious tolerance, including how Muslim history and contributions to Australian society are represented in the curriculum. However, specific changes have yet to be confirmed.
