2010
There’s a certain irony in the fact Australia’s top-ranked school on the Federal Government’s My School website is James Ruse Agricultural High School, located in Sydney, which teaches agricultural science as a mandatory subject from Year 7 to 10.
Yet Prime Minister Julia Gillard has overseen the development of a national curriculum that largely ignores agriculture or portrays it in a negative light.
In December 2008, as the Federal Education Minister, Julia Gillard and her state counterparts agreed to develop a national curriculum, based on a declaration of educational goals. The declaration quite rightly made 21 references to indigenous education and disadvantage, but there was no mention of the wider rural disadvantage, farming or agriculture.
It’s no surprise the authority charged with developing a national curriculum based on this declaration largely ignored agriculture.
But what every farmer needs to understand is the national curriculum is crucial to their future.
The ministers’ failure to mention rural issues and agriculture was simply a reflection of the wider ignorance of rural issues that exists within urban Australia.
It’s this very ignorance a well-designed national curriculum should address.
If city kids fail to understand where their food comes from and how it is produced they will never develop any empathy for rural communities.
Ask many Year 10 city kids if farming harms the environment and the answer is “Yes”.
So, farmers and their lobby groups should be demanding the recently appointed Education Minister Simon Crean step in to give agriculture the emphasis it deserves. After all, Mr Crean knows better than most the importance of agriculture to Australia, having previously held the trade and the primary industries portfolios.
‘Govt deserves an ‘F’ for ag’, Editorial, The Weekly Times, 28 July 2010