Buffy The Vampire Slayer

States rated on Year 12 excellence

STATES will have their Year 12 English, maths, physics and chemistry courses ranked in order of excellence in an attempt to stop "dumbed down" curriculums short-changing Australian students.

Federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson has confirmed plans to introduce a national report card for key subjects after being warned students in Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia were being left behind in maths.

The benchmarks means parents will be able to compare results from state to state.

"I am concerned that standards are being dumbed down," Dr Nelson said yesterday. "These rankings, if you like, will not be done by me. I expect the experts in mathematics and physics to tell me, and tell Australia, what is the highest standard in Australia down to the lowest."

His push for new curriculum benchmarks is likely to underpin proposals for a new Year 12 exam, to be known as the Australian Certificate of Education.

Dr Nelson acted after being alerted to a a "no losers" policy in some states that was masking students’ learning difficulties.

He said he remained deeply concerned by warnings that up to one in three students was leaving the education system "essentially malfunctioning" in literacy.

Students were also increasingly studying films and television shows as "texts", rather than books.

"All students need to be taught contemporary literacy, film and television, but we are in an environment where increasingly the kids are studying Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Big Brother instead of Jane Austen and Bronte," he told The Weekend Australian. Cardinal George Pell also warned this week that the trend to embrace "critical literacy" and abandon traditional English novels was an attempt to make students agents of social change and was placing too much focus on texts that normalised "moral and social disorder".

Dr Nelson will release further details of his plan to establish benchmarks for curriculums across the nation next week.

The reform push represents the next phase of the Howard Government’s attempts to force the states to publish more information on students’ results and teacher training.

But the changes do not require co-operation from the states, with Dr Nelson warning he will send in flying squads of experts in core subject areas to rank the states.

"I am opposed to a national curriculum," he said. "But ... why is it that we cannot, at least in some core areas of education, have a common exam in, for example, chemistry and physics, mathematics and English?

"What it would do is give us some confidence in terms of curriculum. Physics is physics, why is it that students cannot do the same physics exam in Perth as they do in Brisbane?"

Dr Nelson has engaged the Australian Council for Educational Research to develop an Australian Certificate of Education that will establish a "nationally consistent high standard assessment of student skills and knowledge".

"It is clear that standards vary from state to state. It is also clear that curriculum has been altered, in some cases to the detriment of content and standards," Dr Nelson said.

Recent research involving high performing Year 12 students enrolled at the Australian Defence Force Academy found only one in six could achieve a 70 per cent rating in grammar.

The International Centre of Excellence for Education in Mathematics, based at Melbourne University, has also expressed concerns about inconsistent and falling standards in Year 12 mathematics across Australia.

Victorian Education Minister Lyn Kosky, who has come under fire over claims a new English syllabus will allow students to read just one book, dismissed the inquiry as a "political stunt".

"The Victorian Certificate of Education is a fully accredited Australian standard certificate," a spokesman said.

"It’s a high-standard certificate. Victorian parents know that, students know that. It’s a shame Dr Nelson doesn’t know that."

A parliamentary inquiry into teacher training will also hold further hearings next week as the Howard Government considers further reforms.

Chairman Luke Hartsuyker said it was clear good teachers needed a strong background in subject areas, as well as practical experience.

"You can’t take someone who doesn’t have a strong educational background themselves and make them into a good teacher by basically teaching them teaching techniques or pedagogy teaching," he said. "You need subject experience, you need classroom experience and you need teaching expertise."