Why were we so shocked to learn this week that a significant proportion of would-be citizens struggle to understand ideas like the rule of law and democracy?
Their failure, while regrettable, is merely a symptom of a wider malaise in civics education that is undermining the very idea of what it means to be Australian.
The real scandal is not the failure of foreigners to grasp the fundamentals of civic life. The real problem is this is in line with the growing ignorance within this country about the principles that form the bedrock of Australian democracy.
The numbers tell the story.
Data from the Department of Home Affairs shows that just 65 per cent of would-be citizens passed the citizenship test on Australian values between June, 2022, and August, 2023.
But compare that to the most recent figures on civics proficiency among Australian year 10 students: just 38 per cent made the grade.
That figure is from the 2019 National Assessment Program in Civics and Citizenship and might help explain the decline in support for the principles and institutions that define this nation.
Last year’s Lowy poll found that a quarter of those surveyed actually believed that in certain circumstances a non-democratic form of government can be preferable.
If those responsible for the migration system are to be pilloried over the ignorance of many would-be citizens, what are we to make of this country’s education authorities?
In NSW, the nation’s most populous state, the problem is acute. Education authorities there have designed a system that makes it possible for students to gain only limited exposure to civics and citizenship. The problem with civics education, particularly in NSW, is not new.
That state has chosen to depart from the national curriculum by treating civics and citizenship not as a stand-alone subject but as optional parts of the history syllabus.
Here is why that is a problem: In 2021, a committee of the NSW Legislative Council produced a report that says “the teaching of Australian history has become fertile ground for promoting social and political issues – including priorities which reflect an ideological bias – at the expense of core facts”. It found the teaching of history had become “cluttered with educationally questionable source verification, postmodernist theory and political messaging”.
The NSW parliament’s own education and engagement team told the committee the history syllabus did not give the role of civic institutions the core emphasis they believed was necessary. “For example, the topic Making a Nation is not mandatory yet it discusses European settlement in Australia, how and why federation was achieved, state and federal responsibilities under the Australian Constitution, and key events and ideas in the development of Australian self-government and democracy,” the parliamentary team told that inquiry.
But there is hope.
Some time during the first school term, education authorities in NSW are due to make public the latest draft of their revised history curriculum.
This will provide the first indication of whether this state has taken on board the concerns about civics education that were raised last year by the Rule of Law Education Centre, which is the sister organisation of the Rule of Law Institute.
Those concerns are broadly in line with the 2021 findings of the Legislative Council committee. The changes proposed by the education centre are hardly radical. It called for explicit teaching of Australia’s democratic beliefs including parliamentary democracy, the rule of law and the need to respect people regardless of background.
The problem with reforming civics education is particularly difficult in NSW because that state has handed effective control of curriculum content to an agency known as the NSW Education Standards Authority. State law means the role of any education minister in curriculum development is limited to approving NESA’s recommendations and setting broad annual priorities for this agency.
The most obvious problem with this system is a lack of transparency. This could be addressed by making public the submissions NESA receives from interested parties, and by publishing the reasoning that supports its decisions.
NESA’s annual report for 2022-23 outlines the current statement of expectations, which was issued by former education minister Sarah Mitchell of the National Party.
The top priority among the minister’s “specific priority deliverables” was to improve outcomes for Aborigines by ensuring all teacher graduates must complete a dedicated unit in Aboriginal education.
When it comes time for the current education minister, Labor’s Prue Car, to give NESA its next statement of expectations, here are three suggestions:
# Why not give priority to improving civics and citizenship education for all school students, regardless of race?
# Why not insist that all teacher graduates complete a dedicated unit in civic education?
# Why not make civics education a discrete and compulsory subject in order to free it from the postmodern distortions that were uncovered by the Legislative Council in 2021?
The repercussions of the decline in civics are showing up in surprising areas – including the goods that supermarkets choose to display on their shelves.
Peter Dutton is right to be infuriated by the decision of Woolworths to stop selling merchandise that celebrates this country’s national day. But boycotting Woolworths, this country’s largest employer, will merely address a symptom of the decline in civics, not the cause.
A nation that believes in nothing, not even itself, will not be around for too long regardless of events outside our borders. If we are to pull back from that abyss, there needs to be a renewed focus on democracy and the rule of law. And the place to start is education.
