The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Labor party has promised to spend $4.5 billion to fully fund the Gonski funding agreements. Labor announced it will honour the full six years of funding deals with NSW, Victoria, the ACT, South Australian and Tasmania. The Educator reports that Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham has responded to Labor’s announcement saying that ‘Labor’s schools press release fails the basic lesson of the last decade – more money doesn’t automatically equal better student outcomes.’
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a study by the Queensland University of Technology found that private school parents had greater expectations that teachers should be responsible for their child completing homework. QUT researcher Judith Locke said ‘overly involved parents could be too invested in their child’s academic achievements, which may result in excessive emotional reactions if the academic expectations are not fulfilled’ The study found that independent and Catholic school teachers are being stalked to their homes during the weekend and harassed via email and SMS by helicopter parents anxious about their children’s homework.
The Turnbull Government has agreed to lead a national redress scheme for child sexual abuse survivors but has not committed to contributing any shortfall for institutions that cannot pay compensation as the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended in their 2015 report. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Government will develop a ‘nationally consistent approach so that survivors of all institutions would receive proper redress, irrespective of the location of the institution at the time of the offending or the present status of the institution’. The Government will soon commence discussions with the State and Territory leaders to achieve an outcome for survivors as soon as possible.
Catholic school teachers in South Australia have escalated industrial action with many participating in 30-minute work bans, boycotting staff meetings and refusing to take relief lessons. The ABCreports that the industrial action is due to high teacher workloads and a wage offer which is 0.5 per cent below that on offer to public school teachers.
New Zealand teachers and principals are expressing apprehension at the implementation of a computer system that will make the national standards in reading, writing and maths more accurate. Radio New Zealand reports that Education union president Louise Green is against the system as it would make the already flawed national standards even more important. The Government has spent $7.89 million on a Progress and Consistency Tool (PaCT) to help teachers decide whether children have met the standards.
The Otago Daily Times reports that a private school in New Zealand has launched a smartphone app to stay in touch with parents. The app lists term dates, calendar items, notices and contacts for school staff. Parents can also use the app to notify the school of absences.
Alltwen primary school in the UK has banned all chocolate from its campus following the diagnosis of a pupil with a severe chocolate intolerance. Banning certain foods from schools is not an unprecedented step, especially in Britain where schools have previously banned chocolate, chips and fruit juice due to health concerns. Despite this, the Guardian reports that some parents expressed frustration with the move as it was difficult to enforce.
CBC News reports that an investigation by British Columbia’s privacy commissioner has found that the Education Ministry failed to properly provide adequate security surrounding the personal information of 3.4 million students and teachers. The investigation was prompted after the Ministry announced the loss of a hard drive containing students’ information. The report made nine recommendations to boost security around privacy, stating that while it is essential to have strong privacy and security policies, these policies alone are not sufficient to constitute reasonable security measures – better training and executive leadership is required.