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

Pfizer doses double this week as jab considered for kids

The Courier-Mail reports that doses of the Pfizer jab being sent to GPs will more than double this week as Australia hits a vaccination milestone. The increasing number of GP clinics involved in the rollout of the Pfizer jab will receive 250,000 doses of the vaccine this week, up from 100,000 the week before according to Health Minister Greg Hunt. The supplies come as Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration considers giving Pfizer the green light for children as young as 12. Nationally by the end of July, all 136 Commonwealth vaccination clinics, 40 Aboriginal community controlled health services and 1300 GPs will be administering Pfizer. As of Sunday, 13.6 per cent of the population aged 16 and older was fully vaccinated. Australia’s drug regulator has already given Pfizer provisional approval for patients 16 years and older. But an application to extend that approval to adolescents aged between 12 and 15 is now before the TGA.

Department issues updated advice for HSC students

The Educator reports that the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) is reassuring HSC students that arrangements are in place to ensure no student is disadvantaged by COVID restrictions. NESA is continuing to work closely with NSW Health and the school sectors to plan contingencies for HSC exams, and will always follow the health advice to prioritise the safety and health of students, exam staff and school communities. While HSC trial exams are a school-based assessment activity that are not conducted by NESA, NESA has made some changes to their rules to help schools respond to the evolving COVID situation. These changes mean schools can postpone trial exams by a few weeks or provide an alternative assessment task suitable for the learning from home context. NESA will publish further advice to support schools to determine suitable alternative assessment tasks and to estimate marks should the health advice require rescheduled trial exams to be cancelled.

Workers undergo Aboriginal cultural awareness training to meet new child safety standards

The Herald Sun reports that staff from more than 50,000 Victorian schools, hospitals and sporting clubs will undergo Aboriginal cultural awareness training to meet new child safety standards. Even individual tutors, small dance schools and community sports teams with no Aboriginal clients, staff or students will need to fund the compulsory training. Organisations will need to acquire “an appreciation for culturally sensitive issues” and ensure “any instances of racism are addressed with appropriate consequences”. The new standards, which take effect on July 1 next year, also create special obligations on organisations to cater for the needs of young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, non-binary and gender diverse. The focus on cultural safety for Aboriginal children was recommended by Justin Mohamed, Commissioner for Aboriginal children and young people. Mr Mohamed said the training could be done in a variety of ways and would be up to organisations depending on their size and budget.

NSW pauses plan to fly in international students until lockdown ends

The ABC News reports that NSW has paused plans to fly in international students to help kickstart the struggling education sector, with Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirming the pilot program won’t proceed while the state remains in lockdown. Ms Berejiklian said on Tuesday last week that the pilot program had been put on hold, adding that the Government would not do anything to compromise its ability to exit the lockdown as quickly as possible. Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge said on Tuesday the NSW Government had made the right call in pausing the pilot. The Federal Government’s four-stage plan for reopening the country, announced earlier this month, also poses challenges for the return of students. While phase one permits pilot programs for “limited entry of student and economic visa holders”, caps on the number of students entering the country will be imposed in later phases, complicating NSW’s ability to ramp up its intake of students next year using commercial flights.

Readiness tool: School Boarding Premises Registration

The VRQA has advised that school boarding premises providers said that they wanted a checklist to help them understand and meet the minimum standards for registration. The VRQA has developed a readiness tool that provides that checklist. Schools that are participating in the deeming process can use the tool to prepare for completing their self-assessment. It is intended to help schools to: prepare to complete the deeming process self-assessment; self-assess their readiness to apply to register; self-assess their readiness for a review and identify areas for improvement. The VRQA also said that this week schools would receive an email that: confirms the details provided in the pre-deeming form and provides instructions for completing the two-step deeming process for existing school boarding premises (self-assessment and statutory declaration form).

Have Your Say on Education Reform

The Premier of Victoria has announced that Victorians are being encouraged to have their say on the Andrews Labor Government’s major reforms of school-based vocational education and senior secondary education. The reforms will see the integration of the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) into the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). A new foundation certificate will be established from 2023 to support students in all settings to successfully transition to entry level VET or employment after finishing school, particularly students with a disability and additional needs. The Government is keen to hear from students, parents, caregivers, schools, TAFEs, universities and other service providers, peak bodies, industry, employers and the wider community through the Engage Victoria website.

Learner profiles prove that ATAR is not everything

The Australian Financial Review reports that South Australia is set to introduce an alternative to the ranking system ATAR for school leavers next year that will capture their skills, abilities and attributes beyond academic achievement. Martin Westwell, chief executive of the SACE Board, which is leading a national effort to adopt learner profiles, said they were a “high impact, high equity measure” which worked for all students but particularly those who struggled or were disengaged from school. Learner profiles were a key recommendation of a 2020 Federal Government report into secondary school pathways by Peter Shergold, who is chairman of the NSW Education Standards Authority and chancellor of Western Sydney University. While South Australia was working on learner profiles ahead of the Shergold review, other states accepted the recommendations of the review.

SA risks “failing” children if it lifts criminal age from 10

InDaily reports that Australia fronted the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva the week before last to defend its human rights record under global scrutiny. Over 30 member nations supported a recommendation for Australia to raise the minimum criminal age to 14, but the Federal Government’s representative told the committee that responsibility to legislate change rested with the state and territory governments. SA Attorney-General Vickie Chapman told InDaily that she had received feedback from the Youth Court, SA Police and the Commissioner for Victims Rights suggesting that South Australia needed to provide better protection and support programs to young offenders before it legislated to raise the criminal age. Earlier this year the Council of Attorneys-General failed to reach a national consensus after four years of deliberation. The Queensland Government has committed to keep the minimum age of criminal responsibility at 10, while the ACT is currently consulting the public about whether it should raise the age to 14.

How mindfulness, meditation and yoga in WA schools combat increased screen time

WAtoday reports that, while some Perth children start their school day by opening a text book or switching on a device, others are unrolling a yoga mat and being taught mindfulness and meditation before heading back to the classroom. An increasing number of primary schools across the metropolitan area are introducing students to yoga and mindfulness practices in a bid to help them regulate emotions, build resilience, and support classroom learning. National education trainer Rochelle Borton said WA schools needed to spend as much time on mindfulness, meditation, and creating supportive peer environments as they did on academic success to ensure students developed resilience and knew where they fit in the world. Ms Borton, the founder of EnduInfluencers with 15 years’ experience in education, said while some educators in Australia addressed resilience and wellbeing of young people many didn’t have the skills themselves.

Bigwig in the big house: Ex-education boss jailed for school funds rorts

The Age reports that former Victorian Education Department chief Nino Napoli is in prison after being jailed last week after he and family members defrauded school funds in calculated rorting over a period of seven years. Having worked at the Department of Education and Training all his adult life, Napoli abused his position as general manager of his employer’s finance unit – where he was responsible for a $5 billion budget – to approve a series of suspicious contracts to companies run by family members between 2007 and 2014. Napoli, 65, was jailed last Wednesday for three years and 10 months for his involvement in 72 invoices where department funds were paid to companies for printing, multimedia and IT work that on some occasions wasn’t even completed. Napoli must serve one year and 11 months before he is eligible for parole. Towards the end of the rort, he and others then tried to throw anti-corruption investigators off their tails and rehearsed answers they would give at public hearings examining their conduct.

INTERNATIONAL

One-third of countries are not taking action to help children catch up post COVID-19 (Global)

The World Education Blog reports that, according to a new UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank and OECD global survey of national education responses to COVID-19 school closures done in collaboration with the GEM Report, only one-third of countries are taking steps to measure learning losses in primary and lower secondary education, while one-third are not implementing remedial programmes. In 2020, schools around the world were fully closed for 79 teaching days on average across all four education levels (pre-primary, primary, lower secondary and upper secondary). Only one in four countries is providing incentives such as cash, food, transport or fee waivers to help girls or children from disadvantaged families return to school. Carried out with financial support from the Global Partnership for Education, in total 142 countries responded to the survey that covers the period from February to May 2021. It was the third iteration of the survey with previous rounds covering the periods May–June and July–October 2020, respectively.

Kiwis with autism and ADHD say health response slow, “out of date” and stigmatising (New Zealand)

The NZ Herald reports that a petition created by the New Zealand Disability Advisory Trust has garnered more than 1500 signatures online. It calls for the Ministry of Health to "reclassify ADHD/autism as neurodevelopmental disorders and not as mental health disorders", arguing New Zealand's approach to the conditions are "out of date", with "a serious lack of diagnostic support". The trust wanted GPs granted the power to diagnose and prescribe medication for autism and ADHD, with referrals to neurologists rather than into the mental health system. The Ministry of Health's Mental health and addiction chief clinical adviser, Arran Culver, said neither autism spectrum disorder (ASD) nor attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were classified as mental health conditions. The Ministry used the International Classification of Disease (the World Health Organisation's ICD 10 and 11) as reference, which classified both ASD and ADHD as neurodevelopmental disorders.

“COMPLETELY INEXCUSABLE”: No one tracking data on Ontario school staff vaccination (Canada)

o.canada.com reports that the plan to reopen schools in Ontario for in-person learning is based on the expectation that most of the students and staff will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by September. But the province, school boards and five unions representing teachers and education workers say they don’t know what the vaccination rate is among staff as they don’t keep track of the data. The Ministry of Education is expected to release soon its guidelines for the resumption of classes in September, but experts say plans based on immunisation rates will be hard to develop without a full picture of vaccination coverage in schools. Ontario’s COVax system has partial data on the number of education workers who have received vaccines if they signed up under the priority group category. But a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health acknowledged the tally doesn’t include workers who signed up under different eligibility criteria.