4. Views of primary school principals
The fourth indicator we cite to support the argument that overcrowding has occurred is the
views of primary school principals. A survey conducted this year to collect data on how well
primary schools felt they were placed to deliver the Australian Curriculum showed that
principals are deeply concerned. Asked whether they were able to implement the 16 subjects
in the primary curriculum within 80% of the school day, as ACARA suggests should be
possible, over 88% said ‘No’ and 83% said they did not have the fiscal resources to do so.
Over 64% said they could not deliver all five Arts strands. Almost 75% said they could not
deliver Design and Technology. Almost 87% said their schools did not have the knowledge
and skills to deliver Economics and Business. (APPA, 2014)
In our view, the four forms of evidence cited here suggest that the Australian Curriculum is
substantially overcrowded in the number of primary subjects it includes, the amount of pages
and corresponding large word count across the primary curriculum documents, the
inadequate time allocations to English and the excessive content for the time available for the
teaching of some subjects. The views of principals support this conclusion.