“That ICPA Qld lobbies the Queensland Department of Education (DoE) to develop and provide fit for purpose, high-quality, paper-based (printable) learning materials that are consistently accessible to all Schools of Distance Education (SDE) students across all curriculum versions, commencing with Version 9 (V9), as the current Curriculum Support Materials (CSMs) do not adequately meet the practical learning needs of SDE students or the expectations of families and educators supporting distance education.”
Following a review of the CSMs that have been developed, it is evident that these resources will not meet the needs of SDE students, teachers, or families. Considerable departmental time and funding have been invested into materials that, in practice, provide little meaningful support for daily teaching and learning.
The current CSMs function largely as tutoring or revision tools rather than comprehensive teaching resources aligned to classroom delivery. SDE classrooms require far more detailed, structured, and directed materials that can be used consistently to guide and support lessons on a daily basis across all learning areas and year levels.
Furthermore, the DOE has failed to adequately consider the unique learning environment of distance education students. Unlike mainstream classrooms, SDE students rely heavily on clear, accessible, printable, and sequential learning materials to support independent learning and home supervision. Digital-only or supplementary resources are often impractical and ineffective in geographically isolated settings where internet reliability, supervision capacity, and learning support vary significantly.
Immediate action must be taken to ensure the development of high-quality, curriculum-aligned resources.
