When Victorian education minister Ben Carroll announced, earlier this month, that his government had mandated a change in the way teachers instruct children to read, he admitted that he was potentially “stepping on a hand grenade”.

He was entering the long-running “reading wars”, which have pitted teachers, principals, and parents against each other.

Today, education editor Robyn Grace, on why one union has ordered its teachers to disobey the government’s mandate.

And whether the new method will help remedy the inadequate reading proficiency of too many Australian children.