Australia

Teachers’ union claims NSW Government is undermining school counsellors

The NSW Teachers’ Federation has accused the state government of downgrading the qualifications required to be a school counsellor, removing the requirement to have a teaching qualification as well as a psychology qualification. The ABC reports that the union is taking the matter to the Industrial Relations Commission. NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli has said that ‘there is a desperate need [for counsellors]…There are great people out there who don’t have teaching degrees – psychiatrists, psychologists…We want them working in education.’

Music school allowed man to teach after child sex convictions

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard that a prominent Sydney music school allowed a piano teacher to continue giving lessons to children even after he was charged with child sex offences. The ABC reports that while the man was on bail after his initial charges, the NSW Department of Education wrote to the music school after rating the teacher as a ‘high risk’, however the school later decided he could continue to see students as long as another teacher was present.

Four Muslim schools under audit cloud will continue to get federal funding

The Australian reports that four of the six Muslim schools around Australia that have been found to have serious governance and financial mismanagement issues will continue to receive federal government funding and will now likely avoid having to shut their doors. Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham announced that the schools will continue to receive funding on a probationary basis after they attempted to comply with conditions set out as a ‘last chance’ for further funding for the schools.

Former principal pleads guilty to child sex charges

A former principal of a Sydney girls’ school has pleaded guilty to 18 child sex charges committed during his years as a teacher at a previous school for boys in Goulburn. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that an agreed statement of facts reveals that the man would use his role as dorm master to indecently assault the boys on a regular basis.

Catholic school tells gay author his speaking visit is no longer appropriate

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a Sydney Catholic school has cancelled a speaking visit from an award-winning gay author of young adult books because his new book that includes a gay character is ‘not appropriate’.  The author, who recently came out as gay on his blog and just days later received a cancellation email from the school’s coordinating teacher stating that ‘we were reading over your blog and I think that it might not be appropriate, parents might not be happy.’

Former head of medical association warns against rugby tackling ban suggested by UK experts

The former head of the Australian Medical Association has warned against blindly following an extraordinary call from health experts in Britain to ban tackling in school rugby games. The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Professor Kerryn Phelps said that although administrators have a duty of care to minimise risk to participants, ‘if you play sport, every so often you’ll get a sports injury’ and that the benefits of playing sport should not be dismissed because of the potential for physical harm.

Nearly 1000 children missing from WA schools

WA Today reports that nearly 1000 children are missing from the State’s education system while another 10,000 regularly miss more than two days of class a week, according to Department of Education figures. A child is considered ‘missing’ when the child cannot be found by school staff, their parents cannot be contacted or the school has not received advice that the student is being educated elsewhere. WA Education Minister Peter Collier has stated that the figures of ‘missing’ children have actually fallen from 1500 in 2011.

International

Students face criminal charges after allegedly pouring pepper flakes into teacher’s drink

The Guardian reports that three 12-year-old girls in Florida were arrested last week after they allegedly poured red pepper into a teacher’s soft drink and the teacher complained to police. The county sheriff’s spokesman says that one of the girls was angry because their teacher had disciplined her for dumping glue into another student’s backpack. The teacher began choking and experienced shortness of breath and later said she experienced a sore throat and stomach pains.

School requires athletes’ birth certificates to determine gender

In a move condemned by transgender advocates, school superintendents in Texas have overwhelmingly approved a change that requires public school officials to use a birth certificate to determine a student athlete’s gender. The Guardian reports that transgender groups have said the move will force transgender students to amend their birth certificate – a laborious and costly process – in order to play and that the new policy would ‘deny transgender athletes an equal opportunity to sports’.