The Canberra Liberals have promised to focus on foundational learning to improve education outcomes and to boost funding for schools in the Catholic system if they win the October election. Labor has criticised the opposition's curriculum approach as being too conservative while the extra funding for Catholic schools has been slammed by the public school teachers' union. Liberal education spokeswoman Elizabeth Lee said feedback from parents and teachers suggested there was too much to fit into the current curriculum and educators were overburdened with administrative tasks. "We know that we don't want our students to be learning for the sake of learning to tick a box that is one line item in a syllabus that is written somewhere and is stored in a storage box," she said. "We want our children to be learning to ensure that there is understanding that they can build on that knowledge through skills to prepare them for a future that none of us know." She said there would be a refocusing on core subjects of English, mathematics, science and languages under a Canberra Liberals government guided by the recommendations of the New South Wales Curriculum Review by Professor Geoff Masters and the ongoing review into the Australian national curriculum by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). Education Minister Yvette Berry said the existing future of education strategy outlined a rounded approach to school education and a focus on equity, rather than measuring a students' achievement narrowly on performance in literacy and numeracy. "This is a typical play from the Canberra Liberals sticking to their conservative values as the most conservative liberal branch in the country," she said. "The Canberra Liberals might as well get out the chalk board and throw away Chromebooks." Ms Lee said her party would increase funding to Catholic school by $16 million over four years but it would not be at the expense of funding for government schools. "We know that in the Catholic education sector that in the ACT Catholic schools receive the lowest funding from the territory government in the country. And we want to make sure that that becomes a fair model." Secretary of the Australian Education Union ACT branch Glenn Fowler said any suggestion that the Catholic school system was getting a raw deal from the ACT government was a fallacy. "A difference of $778 less is spent every year on average on a government school child versus a Catholic school child and this is [despite] the fact that we've got more than 80 per cent of all the disadvantaged groups. We're doing the heavy lifting," Mr Fowler said. "We know that the federal government is the majority funder of Catholic schools and our position is they don't certainly don't need any help from an ACT government." READ MORE: Director of Catholic Education in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn Ross Fox said the additional funding would help keep fees down. "We've got increasing needs with students with disability, students with additional needs, with supporting teachers in their professional learning, but also to keep fees low. "And so we'll be looking at this funding and looking how we can apply it to best meet the needs of our students and to best support the great teachers we've got." Ms Berry said the ACT government funded all schools according to the Gonski needs-based model.
