Australian politics on the nose in Victorian schools

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Milli Coburn was Victoria’s top-graded Australian Politics student last year, earning a college score of 49 out of 50. She studied the subject online at Virtual School Victoria as her home school didn’t offer it.

Milli is now studying economics at university and has some theories as to why the subject isn’t popular.

“It’s a pretty tough subject. Just understanding the systems, the basics, that’s a lot,” she said. “Studying isn’t always the most fun, and besides, you always have to stay up to date and have your modern examples.”

Still, Milli loved the subject.

“What I actually learned in the course will be relevant to the rest of my life, to the voting decisions I make and the way I understand the news and what’s going on in politics.”

Julian Dowse, a teacher at Xavier College, has 18 students in his Australian Politics class this year.

“I don’t want people to end up like me and spend their whole lives on it, just have the working knowledge of the House of Representatives and the Senate and know what a state election is and why we have a state election and a federal election,” he said .

“It seems paradoxical that with tens of thousands of [VCE] Students, you can’t study your country’s politics in grades 11 and 12.

“And people might say, ‘Well, you can learn enough in grades 7, 8, 9 and 10 as long as you have a basic understanding.’ But all the research tells us that people don’t have that basic understanding.”

There was a comprehensive review of the subject by the Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority last year and a new study design is due to be published soon.

The VCAA did not respond to requests for comment.

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