‘Evidence not ideology’: Major overhaul of the NSW high school curriculum (2024)

High school students will be taught about Indigenous Australians’ experience of colonisation under a sweeping rewrite of the history curriculum that will also mandate the study of civics and the foundations of democracy.

The biggest overhaul of the state’s history syllabus in a decade will also include compulsory study of the Holocaust as part of a new standalone topic on World War II.

A revised year 7 to 10 history syllabus, released on Thursday, will be rolled out under major reforms to the NSW curriculum that include more facts and aim to spell out the core knowledge students need to master before finishing school.

New high school geography and visual arts syllabus will also be released this week, while the revised HSC maths and English syllabuses will be finalised before the end of the year.

Paul Cahill, the executive director for curriculum at the NSW Education Standards Authority, said the updated history curriculum “explicitly articulates” the knowledge students need to learn in each year of schooling.

“Our syllabuses are steeped in evidence, not ideology. Students will have the tools to critique ideas and understand differing perspectives – which are important for identifying disinformation and misinformation in the contemporary world,” he said.

“We have identified what students need to know so they understand the people and events that have made us who we are today.”

The new year 7 to 10 history syllabus includes five core areas: the ancient past, the medieval world, the era of colonisation, the making of the modern world and the post-war period.

For the first time, all NSW students in years 7 and 8 will study Aboriginal peoples’ experiences of colonisation in Australia. The unit will include Aboriginal perspectives and experiences of colonisation, significant conflicts during initial contact, the Frontier Wars, the Myall Creek massacre and the reasons for expansion over the Blue Mountains and into Tasmania.

Students will be taught more detailed history of the Holocaust, the significance of the Nuremberg trials and the creation of the UN Genocide Convention in 1948. Experiences of Jewish survivors in post-World War II Australia will also be included in the new mandatory study unit.

Head history teacher at North Sydney Girls, Michelle Kennedy, said students could previously “go through the whole of school without being taught about the Holocaust”.

“The impact of Nazi Germany on minority groups are also now explicitly referenced,” she said.

While many NSW teachers would elect to cover the Holocaust as a school developed study, the new syllabus provides much clearer guidance on what students need to learn, she said.

Cahill said the approach to the new history syllabuses was chronological, starting in year 7 with the ancient world, covering the era of colonisation, and in years 9 and 10 moving to events that shaped modern Australia.

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Jenni Wenzel, who advises NESA on Aboriginal education, said the syllabus changes would mean Aboriginal students would see their cultures reflected in the curriculum.

“All students need to know about the history of Australia, and truth telling and presenting multiple perspectives is an important part of that,” she said. “For the first time in my life I’m confident that my grandchildren and future generations will be taught the full history of Australia at school.”

Civics and citizenship will become a mandated study area in high school, with students to learn about the development of Australian democracy, the separation of powers, features of the constitution, referendums and voting in elections.

Kennedy, who has taught in NSW public schools for 28 years, said one of the jobs of a history teacher is to “create informed citizens who have an understanding of politics, the Australian political system and how democracy works”.

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Under the previous curriculum, students studied the constitution if they took a commerce elective.

“This change ensures all students get that grounding in Australian politics, which is vital for a country with compulsory voting.”

The consequences of imperialism and changes in Asia leading up to the end of World War I will be included, while World War II will be a standalone unit, with students to focus on causes of the war and the reasons for Australia’s involvement.

The changes follow political turmoil that erupted in 2021, when former federal education minister Alan Tudge said the history curriculum might encourage students to hate rather than love their country.

“I think things change and vary depending on the contemporary political climate,” said Kennedy. “History can be weaponised by people with a political agenda. Young students need to be equipped with the skills to critique dominate narratives and explore multiple perspectives.”

“These syllabuses equip students to become well-rounded and informed young people.”

NSW Education Minister Prue Car

Changes to the geography syllabus include content on climate change impacts, such as environmental and global challenges, while students will need to undertake 10 hours of field work in each stage.

The updates come as more than 100 school syllabuses are being updated following a root-and-branch review of the state’s curriculum that aimed to arrest a two-decade decline in Australian students’ results in global tests.

NSW Education Minister Prue Car said syllabuses gave students opportunities for indepth learning, and supported teachers with essential content for evidence-based explicit teaching.

“These syllabuses equip students to become well-rounded and informed young people,” Car said.

Jonathon Dallimore from the NSW History Teachers Association said the revisions represented a move to more mandated content, making some topics no longer a choice but a required unit of study.

There is still some school choice and teachers will appreciate that, while also retaining site studies which “play an important civic function that helps students understand history as a living public phenomenon”, he said.

The new syllabuses will be taught in schools by 2027 and the new HSC courses by 2030.

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