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.
According to an article in The Conversation, the experiences of Indigenous children and communities in Canada are resonant with those of young First Peoples and children in Australia. These experiences also include the separation of children from their families in an attempt to assimilate and erase Aboriginal peoples. The Bringing Them Home report tabled in Parliament in 1997 presented a national investigation into the removals and concluded: between one in three and one in 10 Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and communities in the period from approximately 1910 until 1970. The recently inaugurated Victorian Yoo-rrook Justice Commission will shepherd Australia’s first ever formal truth telling process. Part of Yoo-rrook’s mandate is to: investigate both historical and ongoing injustices committed against Aboriginal Victorians since colonisation by the State and non-State entities, across all areas of social, political and economic life.
SBS News reports that, on 26 July last year, state and territory attorneys-general deferred a long-awaited decision on raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14, citing the need for more time to explore alternatives to incarceration. One year on, there is still no national consensus or change. It’s prompted renewed calls to make the move and a coalition of legal, medical and human rights groups to write to Federal Attorney-General Michaelia Cash. The group of 47 organisations from the Raise the Age coalition - including the Human Rights Law Centre, Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and multiple Indigenous legal centres - have written to Senator Cash seeking an update on progress. In the past year, the Australian Capital Territory has been the only state or territory to commit to raising the age. The ACT will be drafting new legislation once a discussion paper seeking community feedback closes on 5 August.
The Courier-Mail reports that it was announced on Wednesday that Queensland had recorded 19 new cases of COVID-19, 16 of which were linked to the Indooroopilly Delta cluster. That cluster has now swelled to more than 60 cases, making it the state’s biggest outbreak since the first wave of the pandemic last year. There are now 100 cases active across Queensland. Of these reported cases - which included two people in hotel quarantine and a man in Cairns - 21 of them are children aged under 10. Hundreds of surgeons, doctors and health professionals have also been caught up in the private schools cluster.
According to an article in The Conversation, we learned on Monday that the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) has advised that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged 12-15, those who live in remote communities, and those with underlying medical conditions should be prioritised to receive the jab. With COVID vaccination for kids being such a hot topic, the authors asked five experts whether we should vaccinate children in Australia against COVID-19.
From the experts’ detailed responses:
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that year 12 students across Sydney will be able to opt out of some HSC exams, major projects and works if their studies have been impacted by COVID-19 restrictions under a program the NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said was designed to ensure “we have a fair HSC”. HSC students who live or go to school in an area affected by stage 4 lockdowns will be able to apply for special consideration if they have suffered a substantial impact on the preparation of an oral or performance exam, or development of a major project. Schools in areas under stage 4 lockdown, which includes Greater Sydney, will also be able to apply for the COVID-19 Special Consideration Program. Under the program, a student’s final mark in the affected component work will be based on the mark provided by their teacher rather than external HSC markers, according to the NSW Education Standards Authority website. “Schools will provide a brief explanation of how their affected students were impacted,” the NESA website said. “Detailed evidence for students who have been impacted by Level 4 restrictions will not be required.”
InDaily reports that Premier Steven Marshall told an estimates hearing last week that the Government still intended to welcome international students next month, despite concerns about the state’s closed border to New South Wales. The trial, which received Commonwealth approval in June, will see up to 160 overseas students at a time quarantine at flight school accommodation at Parafield Airport before returning to university campuses. The approval hinged on a Commonwealth Government pre-condition that South Australia’s border remained open for domestic travel when the international students arrived. Asked by Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas how the trial could go ahead given the current border closure with NSW, Marshall said the State Government was still discussing a compromise with its Federal counterpart. Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge conceded coronavirus outbreaks across the country had thrown international student repatriation plans off course.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge has emphatically backed NSW’s plan for returning international students to university campuses, saying it was almost ready to go before the Delta outbreak forced Sydney into lockdown. Victoria remains locked in preliminary negotiations with the Commonwealth over its draft plan, submitted in June, but the Andrews government has ruled out following NSW’s option of using student accommodation as quarantine facilities. In his first public remarks endorsing NSW’s proposal, Mr Tudge described it as a “very good one” but said it was a matter for the Berejiklian government to decide when the pilot could resume. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed earlier this month that her government had indefinitely paused its plan to fly in 250 overseas students into the state on charter flights every fortnight.
The Herald Sun reports that girls studying at single-sex schools are more mentally tough than those from co-ed campuses, a new study has found. A UK study of nearly 3000 students has found students in girls’ schools are more confident and have better emotional control than those in co-ed settings, making them better equipped to deal with stress, pressure and challenges. “This might explain why girls in girls’ schools typically do better academically and are more likely to choose to study STEM subjects than girls in coeducational schools,” the report from AQR International says. The findings come from a broader study of more than 40,000 students which shows independent school pupils are more mentally tough than state school students, but are not more confident. The findings come amid a drift away from single-sex schools, with Education Department data showing co-ed schools increased by 11 per cent from 2015 to 2020. Enrolments at girls’ schools grew by just 2.4 per cent.
The Herald Sun reports that Victorians could soon be banned from idling their cars outside schools and daycare centres, with scientists warning the government that air pollution is shrinking children’s lungs and risking long-term health. A Parliamentary inquiry into air pollution has been told that Australia is decades behind other countries with laws protecting the air that kids breathe. Melbourne’s rising population and traffic congestion are contributing to a perfect storm for asthma and other heart conditions. As an immediate first step, experts speaking to the inquiry have urged the government to stop parents keeping their cars switched on as they wait to pick their children up. But they say long-term solutions are also needed, including restrictions on childcare centres on busy roads. Clare Walter, a researcher at the University of Melbourne’s Lung Health Research Centre, said international studies had shown a 300 per cent increase in local pollution at pick-up time.
The Age reports that a Victorian Parliamentary inquiry into making it easier for the general public to ride on school buses began public hearings on Tuesday last week. Rod Barton, the upper house Transport Matters Party MP who pushed for the inquiry, said there were more than 1000 publicly funded school bus services in the state that could benefit many people who do not own cars and live in regional communities starved of public transport options. Regional and rural schools have already rejected the idea, raising a host of concerns about adults using the same buses as unaccompanied children. The state’s three regional Catholic education dioceses warned child safety would be “seriously compromised” if buses were opened to the wider community. But Mr Barton said their concerns about child abuse were unfounded. The Victorian Principals Association gave qualified support to the proposal, so long as the extension of school bus services to the general public did not delay school children from getting to and from school, nor create child safety risks.
According to a podcast on Teacher, when it comes to drawing a line between a teacher’s professional and personal life, this can be challenging, particularly when it comes to their private use of social media. This idea has been explored by two researchers from the School of Law at Western Sydney University – Dr Sandy Noakes and Dr Sarah Hook. Their paper, which looks at the status of regulation of teacher behaviour on social media in Australia, found a huge variance in the social media policies that are in place for educators at schools across the country, and that there is room for teachers to be more aware of their rights in this area. The impetus for this research was a decision made by the High Court in Australia in 2019 on the Comcare and Banerji case. This case involved an employee of the Australian Human Rights Commission who used a private, anonymous Twitter account to criticise their employer’s policies. Their employment was terminated because of this behaviour and when they fought this decision in court, the decision of the employer was upheld.
The CBC reports that the Roman Catholic Church spent millions of dollars that were supposed to go to residential school survivors on lawyers, administration, a private fundraising company and unapproved loans, according to documents obtained by CBC News. The documents include a host of other revelations. They appear to contradict the Catholic Church's public claims about money paid to survivors. "There are also a large number of serious accounting discrepancies that are alarming to Canada," states one document, a 53-page federal government "factum" summarising the evidence in a 2015 court matter. None of the other churches involved in the landmark Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement of 2005 — Anglican, United and Presbyterian — engaged in any of these practices. They all paid the full amounts agreed to years ago without incident. Advocates for survivors say they're disgusted and that the Catholic Church must be held accountable.
According to the World Education Blog, extensive calls to “build back better” are being made in response to the continued impacts and restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Efforts such as #SaveOurFuture have been critical in collectively identifying actions to deliver change to the education sector in the wake of COVID-19. Evidence of inequities in education systems was widespread even before the crisis caused by COVID-19, with learning opportunities unevenly distributed and quality education often unobtainable for the most marginalised children, adolescents, and young people. Recent ODI research across a sub-set of 38 countries that have shown substantive gains on primary completion rates over the last two decades revealed several critical lessons in relation to education equity and past experience. Greater attention on the issue is needed, given that recent GEM Report findings showed only one in five countries have inclusive financing mechanisms in place.