What is happening? The rudd government has come into office and it seams that the education system is going down the drain! For the first time in (i think) 12 years the syllabus is being "refined." But looking at the maths final draft syllabus, it appears that they are dumbing down the syllabus.
For advanced, there is less work! But what is most outragous is the Mathematics Extension 2 final draft syllabus! They have taken out the two current hardest subjects ie Conics and Harder 3 Unit. They have replaced the Harder 3 Unit with 1/4 of the Harder 3 unit part ie inequalities, making it one whole topic! They have taken complex numbers and polynomials and smashed them together into one topic, thus droping the amount learn on each individual topic!
AND they have added another general course. So they have completely ruined the education of the top half of maths students! Extension 2 way easier, adv and extension slowed down!
There is a reason that there is less work in advanced. Teachers have always complained that there is too much in the current syllabus to comprehensively cover on time. In fact many experts have commented that the current drafts are too jam packed to be covered in the time limit.
As for the Extension 2 syllabus, one thing that is intended to move in is second order differential equations. These are definitely useful in tertiary studies and it's about time they are moved into the high school syllabus. This obviously comes at a price of removing other topics. However, I do agree on your views about the removal of Harder 3 Unit.
Also, the draft syllabus is not necessarily indicative of the final syllabus. If the drafts are met with heavy criticism by maths teachers then the final syllabus will be very different to the draft. Furthermore, the proposed implementation of the new syllabus has been delayed due to the national curriculum scheduled to be implemented in 2011.
Is this going to reflect the new changes to other subjects, like English, Physics, History or Social Sciences! They are making it easier for the dumb people. What about the smart people!
The story in the English faculty is exactly opposite that from the Maths faculty. Most English teachers are complaining that HSC English in its current form is
too difficult and students should be given credit on mastering language mechanics as opposed to writing a highly sophisticated critical response under pressure.
Another beckon of light for intellectual teenagers is being extinguished by the 'new developments' of the education system. Distinction courses are courses for gifted and talented students who have completed a subject a year or more ahead of their cohort (eg accelerating in maths, science, English or whatever). these courses give tallented people a chance to both interact with like minded peers and the chance to pursue and challenge themselves to rigorously challenging excersizes!
I don't know why the distinction courses are being removed, but I don't think they should be.
Whats next! Australia depends on the generation of tomorrow; the next engineers, teachers, scientists, politicians and such! But what makes these people, i say its the education and intellectual environment that they thrived in when they were in school, like you or me. They found maths and science and english difficult, but were at least challenged, and this challenge is what made them who they are. But what would happen if this challenge, this pursuit for intelectual development were to cease! We would not have engineers, mathematicians, biologists, physicists, scientists, teachers, politicians, historians or anything of the kind. Our economic would eventually wither away, just like out education system.
Its for these reasons that we need to have a strong and challenging eduction system, that not only suits the 'average' student, but can help those who will grow up and help Australia; the engineers, scientists, teachers and politicians.
So what do you guys think about whats happening to our education system! Please share your opinion!
Ok first of all, these changes you mentioned are for the NSW syllabus only which already is one of the leading states in education in Australia.
Second of all, making the syllabus more challenging does not mean it is necessarily better. If the syllabus is to be made to favour top students only we would have the following problems:
- teachers would find it harder to teach students
- students at the lower end would drop out which screws their confidence and eventually they lose interest
- there would be little discrimination between average students and bottom students
These are apparently the problems faced by the current English syllabus which is deemed too difficult at the moment by many teachers.
The syllabus has to be adjusted to target the average student. There must be a balance between meeting the needs of lower end students and meeting those of higher end students. Furthermore, they have to be suitable for teachers to teach in the allocated time. This is a very tricky and difficult thing to do.
Finally, the comments you made are based on the Stage 6 syllabus. I think a much bigger problem lies in the junior level syllabus in the sense that there are too many students with insufficient literacy and numeracy skills.