The information in the Weekly Wrap is aggregated from other news sources to provide you with news that is relevant to the education sector across Australia and worldwide. Each paragraph is a summary of the subject matter covered in the particular news article. The information does not necessarily reflect the views of CompliSpace.

AUSTRALIA

Coronavirus Australia: States to make their own call on schools remaining open

According to news.com.au, States and Territories will “pursue their own arrangements” in relation to whether schools will remain open for the remainder of the term, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s firm stance on the matter has not wavered. Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said there had been “constructive discussions” with the education State and Territory leaders surrounding the widely-debated topic of keeping schools and day care centres open throughout “stage 2” of coronavirus lockdown. While he maintained that schools should stay open, with parents who are able to homeschool their children encouraged to do so, Mr Morrison added that on the other side of the Easter break, how schools are managed nationwide will look vastly different. “On a national basis [we are] seeking to get some consistency on when schools reopen on the other side of the school holidays. It won't look like it has looked up until now,” he warned.

School's out: Three weeks off for Easter as Govt shifts stance

InDaily reports that South Australian schools will close early for Easter holidays, with four new pupil-free days and the Good Friday public holiday meaning the student break will now extend for three weeks as authorities grapple with the coronavirus pandemic. Education Minister John Gardner announced that public schools and preschools would be closed from Monday April 6 to Thursday April 9, to “assist the state’s educators to plan and prepare to transition to flexible learning, ready for Term Two”. He maintained the Government’s determination to keep schools open, however he backtracked on Steven Marshall’s strong rhetoric the previous week, when the Premier “discouraged” parents keeping children at home. The Minister expected Catholic and Independent schools to implement similar arrangements to government schools. Independent Schools Association SA chief Carolyn Grantskalns said private schools were not compelled to close early but suggested many would.

WA teachers sigh in relief at early school closures

WAToday reports that a WA teacher has praised the government’s decision to finally close schools but warned the decision came too late, as school staff had already walked off the job to avoid being “socially irresponsible”. Public school teacher John* said it was ridiculous that schools remained open for so long when schools worldwide had already shut, and China had welded doors closed. John said having returned to work on Monday last week was “ridiculous” and that teachers Australia-wide had been waiting for the announcement for schools to be ordered to shut. “Half of the kids are at home, half of the kids are at school, and it isn’t business as usual at school,” he said. In the last week, according to Western Australian Primary Principals’ Association, absenteeism at a select number of schools had risen to more than 90 per cent.

How ACT schools are planning for shift to online learning amid the coronavirus

The Canberra Times reports that the ACT government announced late last Sunday afternoon that the Territory's schools would go "student-free" from Tuesday until school holidays. The move, which would lead to mass confusion across the Canberra community over the following 36 hours, was somewhat surprising given that the Territory had been in lock-step with other jurisdictions in publicly defending the need to keep schools open and functioning normally amid the pandemic. As parents started pulling their children out of school as a precaution against COVID-19, teachers found themselves stretched between catering for those students at home and those remaining in class. If homeschooling was to be the new norm, teachers would need to be trained in how to deliver classes remotely - and quickly. Fewer than 5 per cent of ACT public school students attended class on the first "pupil-free" day. ACT Catholic Education director Ross Fox said parents were being encouraged to keep their children at home but stressed that schools would remain open for the remainder of term 1 for those who needed it.

Supporting schools' shift to online education

According to The Educator, the Victorian Government has launched a new website to help teachers and students transition to online learning as more schools close due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The Learning From Home site provides learning resources which cater from early childhood services to secondary school students. The website also provides advice on how teachers can best communicate and support students during the pandemic. More resources and advice will be added to the site in the coming weeks. “We are preparing for every possible scenario during this outbreak to ensure Victorian students in government, independent and Catholic schools continue to learn – that is why Learning From Home is so important,” Victorian Education Minister, James Merlino, said. The new website adds to the state government’s existing online resources, including FUSE – a series of teaching resources, and Compass System, which is used for communicating to students and parents.

Kids shouldn’t have to repeat a year of school because of coronavirus. There are much better options

According to an article in The Conversation, Australian schools and teachers are preparing to shift classes online – some independent schools already have. Remote learning is likely to be the norm in the second term and possibly longer. Even if done well, there are still likely to be learning losses. Rigorous US studies of online charter schools show students learn less than similar peers in traditional face-to-face schools. This makes sense, because learning is a social activity. The evidence shows positive effects are stronger where technology is a supplement for teaching, rather than a significant replacement - the situation we face now. The success of online initiatives relies on preparation and good implementation. Governments and schools have several options. Getting struggling students to repeat a year shouldn’t be one of them, unless school closures go much longer than expected.

Private schools brace for dropouts amid economic crisis caused by virus

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that financial hardship during the COVID-19 crisis is likely to force many children out of expensive private schools and into public or low-fee schools, parents and principals predict. School funding experts say there is no historical precedent to suggest how hard the financial downturn caused by the coronavirus crisis will hit the non-government school sector. The head of the NSW Parents' Council, Rose Cantali, said most parents had not reckoned with the financial implications of the coronavirus shutdown yet, as the situation was changing so rapidly. Parents were not yet complaining about having to pay full fees for remote learning, and she believed those who could pay would be willing to do so if the online service was helping their children achieve academically. Private schools are not discounting fees due to the COVID-19 crisis, but some have asked parents to contact them if they have serious financial concerns. Parents whose children attend Catholic schools in the Parramatta diocese have been told to pay what they can, and that outstanding fees would not be followed up.

Independent schools may ask for money to survive COVID-19 crisis

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, independent schools hit hard by the loss of parental fees because of the COVID-19 crisis will ask state and federal governments for emergency funding if the situation does not improve within weeks. The move comes as education authorities confirmed last Tuesday the class of 2020 would receive an HSC, and almost 75 per cent of public school children did their lessons from home as schools tried to minimise contact between students and teachers. The head of the Association of Independent Schools NSW, Geoff Newcombe, said that he was concerned that the combined impact of coronavirus, the drought and bushfires would leave parents struggling to pay fees. "If the COVID-19 situation doesn’t improve by Easter, some independent schools will be in an extremely difficult position," he said. "AISNSW, together with its interstate colleagues, will be calling on the federal and state governments to provide emergency funding to ensure that vulnerable independent schools can continue to offer teaching in either an online mode at home or at school."

HSC 2020 to go ahead

The Educator reports that the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) confirmed that the Higher School Certificate (HSC) is going ahead in 2020, despite many students staying at home due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Last Tuesday, 74 per cent of NSW public school students stayed at home – a jump from 40 per cent on Monday, after Premier Gladys Berejiklian encouraged parents to keep their children at home. However, she reiterated that schools remain open for those who want to attend. Meanwhile, the NESA Board has announced the establishment of a COVID-19 Response Committee to address developing issues as a matter of urgency. Chair of the NESA Board Professor Peter Shergold said that if students get sick, their school and NESA have provisions to ensure they are not disadvantaged. The Board is giving principals or system authorities the power to make decisions about the number and weighting of HSC formal assessment tasks for their school in 2020.

“Alarming shortage”: Councils push for 350 new schools in booming suburbs

The Age reports that Melbourne's booming outer suburbs, including areas such as Point Cook, Cranbourne, Craigieburn and Lilydale, will need 250 to 350 new schools within the next 10 years or face cramming 150,000 extra students into increasingly overcrowded campuses, 10 councils have warned. The growth area councils said the government’s broken funding promises and a lack of proper planning have left a "critical undersupply" of schools in communities that would host more than half of Melbourne's population boom in the next decade. Interface Councils represents 10 shires that form the urban ring around Melbourne, an area that housed 1.6 million people in 2016, a figure forecast to almost double by 2041. Karen Egan, mayor of Nillumbik council and chair of Interface Councils, said the area already suffered from poor education outcomes compared with the rest of Victoria, exacerbated by an “alarming shortage” of high schools.

INTERNATIONAL

Coronavirus also has implications for data collection on education (Global)

According to the World Education Blog, questions around COVID-19 and education arise in the short, medium and long term. Right now, it is important to understand how to support teachers, parents, and students to mitigate the impact of school closures, especially for the most vulnerable Later on, we will need to understand the effects on entire school careers and beyond, and on countries’ progress towards the 2030 targets. Both perspectives will require quality data and analysis in the coming 2-3 years to understand and learn which of today’s activities worked or not, and what this means for continued support needs in the decade to come. But finding that data is not easy pickings. For example, this year, more than two dozen MICS [Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey] and DHS [demographic and health surveys] surveys are planned or are already underway. These are critical for informing on many low and lower-middle income countries’ progress towards [global education goal] SDG 4. However, these surveys are likely to be disrupted.

UNESCO’s response to the coronavirus crisis offers multilateral solutions (Global)

According to the World Education Blog, the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increasingly stringent measures around the world, including countrywide or localised school closures. As of 22 March, UNESCO has counted as many as 124 countries that have carried out countrywide school closures, affecting over 1.25 billion learners from pre-primary to tertiary education. While some of the first countries to be affected by the crisis, such as China and Japan, are already considering a partial return to school, this number is likely to continue increasing. The crisis brings multiple challenges, some obvious, some not. To operationalise remote learning at such scale requires human capacities, technological infrastructure, experience and finance. In the immediate phase, UNESCO set up an Education Response Task Force, coordinated by the Assistant Director-General for Education, which created a web platform with examples of online remote learning solutions, and of different set ups per country.