Health and Physical Education must be included in the National Curriculum

The recent announcement that The Arts has been included in stage two of the national curriculum process came after ACHPER National had been informed by the National Curriculum Board that no more subjects would be considered until the newly established ACARA made recommendations to MCEETYA.

ACHPER National were also informed that an announcement from the Deputy Prime Minister might be imminent regarding the remaining learning areas. This has not occurred and confirmation from MCEETYA is that they have no immediate plans to consider Health and Physical Education. Consequently ACHPER NSW has a duty to our membership and the profession to participate in a well orchestrated national campaign to increase public awareness and call the government to account.

This is a matter of national significance that can have a considerable impact on state and territory government positions on Health and Physical Education. Hence any campaign must be coordinated nationally with Branches, within their own contexts delivering common and consistent messages.

ACHPER National has proposed a range of actions that will be undertaken at a national, state and local level. These actions are set out below.

Proposed Actions

1. ACHPER National will immediately send a letter of concern to the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Health and Ageing and Minister for Sport and Youth seeking an urgent meeting.
2. ACHPER National will release a succinct Media Statement raising concerns following recent Arts inclusion and announcing the concern of all ACHPER Branches and members.
3. Simultaneously State Branch Board’s need to assist and advise members on the current situation and how to follow up over the next 6 months that leads to the October ACARA advice to MCEETYA.

What follows below is the beginning of that process.

The current situation

• ACHPER seeks a national Health and Physical Education curriculum entitlement for all Australian children and youth.
• ACHPER has developed a National Statement of Learning for Health and Physical Education.
• Following recent acceptance of The Arts only the Health and Physical Education and Information and Communication Technology learning areas have not been included in the National Curriculum review process.
• Geography, Languages and The Arts were added to stage 2 apparently as a response to lobbying by supporters of these areas.
• Current advice is that nothing will be happening until October when ACARA has been asked to provide advice to MCEETYA (ACHPER Vic response from MCEETYA spokesperson).

Key targets

• ACHPER National should focus on the Federal Government Departments of Education, Health and Sport and MCEETYA.
• Branches need to focus on State and Territory Ministers of Education, Sport and Health, with all Branches echoing the same message on the need for a national entitlement in H&PE.
• The State and Territory Education Ministers make up MCEETYA which basically makes the recommendation to the Federal Government in the end. Getting to them in each state is critical.

ACHPER NSW response

As a branch we need to determine the context and the extent of our involvement, our allies and the organisations that will support us. Connections with local media, newspapers and radio will be very important. We also need to ensure that whenever and whoever we are lobbying - our message is about securing better health for children and youth, not just focussing on physical education and sport.

Over coming weeks we will be loading documents onto the new ACHPER NSW website homepage (www.achpernsw.com.au) which will include – template letters for correspondence with local state MPs and the NSW Minister for Education (Verity Firth) and the ACHPER National Statement on Learning for Health and Physical Education.

We will also be developing a list of organisations, partners and key contacts within the broader health and physical education community in NSW as well as key media contacts, to begin to put together an advocacy strategy over the next 6 months. Please email Janice Atkin or Julie Percival with ideas and suggestions about who we should be working with and how we might initiate the conversations about the importance of health and physical education in the national curriculum.

The important thing is that the message is sustained over a period of time. We must not use up all of our ammunition in one burst.

The time has come for our profession to stand up and defend the rights of young Australians to receive a curriculum guarantee of health and physical education and to advocate for the importance of our key learning area in ensuring that our youth develop into active and healthy citizens of the future.

Janice Atkin
President
ACHPER NSW