Coalition promises to reform tech in schools

The Coalition has pledged to evolve the National Curriculum for schools around "technologies" in order to "restore the focus" on science, tech, engineering and related subjects in schools, but has not provided any detail on how it would do so.

The promise is one of few technology-related pledges contained in the Coalition's schools policy document released today.

The document does however include a proposed $10 million investment to trial an online language learning platform on preschool aged children for a year.

The Coalition said it expects "an estimated 400,000 preschool children would benefit as part of the online language learning trial for one year".

It saw online delivery as having "significant potential to provide young children with their first foreign language experience".

It also reiterated an earlier pledge to reform the MySchool website.

In particular, the Coalition wants to make sure that National Assessment Programme - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) test results are turned around much faster.

It criticised the current marking process as "complicated", saying it took too long for "various government departments ... to 'validate data'."

The Coalition also repeated its criticism of the Government's computers in schools program for "blowouts" and being consigned "to the policy dustbin ... meaning no extra funding is available to states or non-government schools for new computers or maintenance for existing computers".

The Coalition policy document does not appear to provide any specific commitments around ongoing support for computer usage in schools.