Curriculum deadline to stay same

Press, 4 May 1984, Page 4

Curriculum deadline to stay same

Parliamentary reporter

The Government will not extend the deadline for comments on its proposed new core curriculum for schools, said the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, yesterday. Sir Robert said the Government caucus had considered extending the deadline yesterday, but had also weighed up the fact that legislation needed to authorise changes to the curriculum would have to go through all its stages in Parliament this year as well.

The legislation would be drafted after submissions had been considered, and it would then be introduced and passed to a select committee, which would also call for public submissions. The bill would have to be passed before the House rises about the middle of November.

Extending the deadline for submissioins at present would have cramped the

consideration of this legislation, Sir Robert said.

“The general feeling of caucus is that it was wiser to take the proper amount of time with the bill and use the full length of the session to give the maximum amount of time for submissions to be heard by a select committee and then consideration by the committee and then the House,” he said.

The Minister of Education, Mr Wellington, had told the caucus that he had already received submissions from important groups, and was still receiving them. He had also had 20,000 copies of the proposals printed, so anyone would be able to get a copy who was interested, Sir Robert said. The Government’s decision means, however, that implementation of the final core curriculum will be determined by a vote in Parliament on the bill authorising the changes.