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

Chief Scientist says obsession with ATAR is leading students astray

According to The Age, Australia’s Chief Scientist has attacked the national scoring system for university entry, arguing it discourages high school students from taking on difficult subjects for fear of getting a lower score. Dr Alan Finkel said Australian universities’ intense focus on the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank as the bar for acceptance was setting students up to perform poorly once they reached tertiary education.

Girls at single-sex schools get a competitive boost

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, a recent experiment conducted by American researchers examining the relationship between girls’ only schooling and competitive behaviour found girls from a single-sex school are more competitive than their female peers at a closely-matched co-educational school. The competitive behaviours are comparable to that of co-educated males.

Melbourne Catholic Archbishop Peter Comensoli would choose jail over breaking confessional seal

According to ABC News, the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne has said he would rather go to jail than report admissions of child sexual abuse made in the confessional. A bill which would make it mandatory for priests to report suspected child abuse to authorities, including abuse revealed in the confessional, was introduced to Victoria's Parliament on Wednesday morning. The Catholic Church last year formally rejected the notion that clergy should be legally forced to report abuse revealed during confessions.

Victorian teachers' union votes to support climate strike

According to Green Left, the Australian Education Union’s (AEU) Victorian branch voted to support a student-initiated call for a Climate Strike on September 20. The internationally coordinated strike, which will be held just days before a United Nations Emergency Climate Summit, is seeking to pressure governments to take serious action to address the climate crisis.

Teachers demand more play-based learning to be adopted in WA schools

According to 9News, there are calls for children in schools across Western Australia to spend less time at the desk and more time out and about. The State School Teacher's Union is campaigning for the State Government to secure play-based learning across WA schools. The Union today launched its Play is Learning campaign, which pushed for more active and physical engagement with children from Kindergarten up to Year Two.

Union questions elite school capital works

According to The Flinders News, teachers are demanding the Morrison government justify its funding of elite private schools, as new figures reveal the luxury facilities many are building while public schools languish. Funding to private and independent schools grew one-and-a-half times as fast as the amount going to public schools between 2009 and 2017. On top of this, the federal government has set aside $1.9 billion for capital works at private schools. But it hasn't put aside any similar funding for public schools. The Australian Education Union has highlighted MySchool data showing the four richest private schools in Australia spent more money on new facilities and renovations - $402 million - than 1800 other schools combined, who collectively spend $370 million.

Dyslexia advocates say ACT Government falling behind on commitments to improve classrooms

According to ABC News, there are accusations that the ACT Government has fallen short of commitments it made to improve the experience of children with learning difficulties such as dyslexia in Canberra's schools. In 2013, a taskforce into students with learning difficulties was commissioned by the ACT Government. It recommended greater teacher awareness, a more consistent approach across schools and better relationships between schools and families. Code Read Dyslexia Network director Jennifer Cross was part of the taskforce, but she said the benchmarks it set had not been met by the ACT Government.

Overhaul of sex abuse laws needed to remedy community confusion, advocates say

According to ABC News, there are growing calls for an overhaul of Tasmania's sex abuse laws in the wake of outrage following the airing of Grace Tame's harrowing ordeal. Tasmania's existing laws normalise sex attacks on children and cause confusion about what is rape, according to victims, their advocates and lawyers. Former head of Tasmania's Bar Association, Chris Gunson, said the charge of maintaining a sexual relationship with a person under 17 needed to be scrapped. He said the charge "normalises" the offending — or suggests the child was a willing participant in an equal relationship.

INTERNATIONAL

(US) New York considers laws requiring schools to teach hate symbols in class

According to SBS News, New York schoolchildren may soon have to learn about swastikas and nooses in class, in a bid to prevent hate crimes. Democratic state Senator Todd Kaminsky has introduced a bill in the Senate that requires lessons on hate symbols to be included in the student curriculum for grades six through 12. "The rise of antisemitic and racist acts rights here in Nassau County is deeply troubling," he said on Facebook on Tuesday. "Sadly, many young perpetrators do not really know the pain and bigotry these symbols convey… Education is key in the fight for unity."

(US) How #MeToo is changing sex ed policies — even in red states

According to KHN, the 2019 state legislative season is producing a bumper crop of sex education bills across the U.S., with at least 79 bills introduced in the legislatures of 32 states and the District of Columbia, according to a recent report by the Guttmacher Institute, a sexual and reproductive health research and advocacy organisation. Most of the bills have been aimed at expanding youth education around healthy sexuality and relationships — and reducing the reach of the abstinence-only ideology that had become part of many sex ed classes over the past four decades.

(China) Class dismissed: Surge in arrests of foreign teachers in China

According to Reuters, arrests and deportations of foreign teachers in China have soared this year, lawyers, schools and teachers say, amid a broad crackdown defined by new police tactics and Beijing’s push for a “cleaner”, more patriotic education system.