ABORIGINAL history and culture, sustainability and Australia's engagement with Asia will be cornerstones of the new civics national curriculum for schools.
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The draft national curriculum, released for public comment yesterday, is also based on the principle that students are part of a multicultural, secular society with a multi-faith population.
For the first time, all students will learn about the culture, social and political processes, and laws of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.
This will be married with lessons about liberal democracy, the Westminster system and the Australian constitution, as well learning about individuals' personal and civic rights.
Students will be expected to understand various aspects of legal processes, the rule of law, human rights and democratic principles.
The draft curriculum will also teach students about the political systems at local, state and federal levels, and will tie in with the history and geography curriculums.
Last month, the former prime minister John Howard raised concerns about the new history curriculum, which had been approved by state and territory ministers. Mr Howard said the curriculum was "unbalanced, lacking in priorities and quite bizarre", and said it neglected Australia's Judeo-Christian background.
But the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority said the history curriculum – which will be supported by the civics and citizenship curriculum – would include content about Western history and Australian post-settlement history at most year levels.
Meanwhile, the Tertiary Education Minister, Chris Evans, will today announce the first tranche in the government's Asian Century white paper policies, designed to help students engage with the Asia.
Senator Evans said the government would provide more than 10,000 grants for Australian students to study in Asia, and expand student loans to Australian students studying in the region.
The AsiaBound Grants Program will be worth $37 million, and will offer grants of between $2000 and $5000 for students undertaking short or semester-length study exchanges. They will also be eligible for $1000 grants to prepare for Asian language studies.
Student loans would be simplified, Senator Evans said, and there would be an extra $1000 available for intensive language training.
"For a long time, Asian students have enjoyed educational opportunities here in Australia but student mobility must go both ways," Senator Evans said.
"The next generation of Australian leaders will need to be increasingly Asian-literate and these are skills best learnt by experiencing Asia first-hand."
