Numeracy In The Australian Curriculum

What is numeracy?

Numeracy is an ability to use or understand numerical techniques of mathematics to solve problems in real life. The typical applications of numeracy in everyday life are counting figures, additions or subtraction hours to calculate an expected time and calculating the money after receiving the same amount of salary for 2 years. Moreover, numeracy consists of fundamental skills for several professional careers, especially the careers that deal with statistics. This is because they should understand what the numerical values in charts and diagrams represent to interpret data, in order to make reasonable decisions based on the data. In 21st century where the technology has been changing the ways people share and develop information

The Shape of the Australian Curriculum Version 4.0 includes a strong focus on literacy and numeracy, since the quality and equity of education, which are the eventual goals of the curriculum can be published through the priorities. The curriculum defines the quality of education as teaching students the essential knowledge and skills to live and work as a 21st century citizen, whilst the equity is clarified as teaching young Australians an explicit knowledge and understanding of what they should learn without any kinds of discriminations on the students. ACARA addresses the education equity by implementing the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) for each year for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 in order to gather and compare the learning processes of students across the Australia and minimise the impact of the locations of schools and other external influences and foster young Australian learning process. However, since the NAPLAN test is for a day to test the students’ learning, students who do not feel well on the day of NAPLAN will not be able to demonstrate their capacity and level of understanding fully. This illustrates that the result may be differed to the actual students’ learning process. Therefore the liability of the NAPLAN is

It discussed about the poor performances on literacy and numeracy of a student who was raised by parents who do not possess incompetence in literacy and numeracy skills. Moreover, it is apparent that Victoria State Government among the other curriculums believes that there are strong connections between the literacy and numeracy skills. It also mentions how various interventions was implemented for students who need to enhance their levels of literacy and numeracy. It defines the low participation and adherence as the main reason of failure in family interventions and suggests several recommended strategies to encourage the literacy and numeracy. Nonetheless, the fact that the major reason of a child with low literacy and numeracy are due to the family environment does not imply that the result of low literacy and numeracy skills of a child are certainly due to a family