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.
The West Australian reports that the Morrison Government recently announced a $189 million package designed to prevent family, domestic and sexual violence. A $42.9 million media campaign will be supported by a suite of online resources to better equip Aussie parents with tools to have conversations with young people over 12 about consensual and respectful relationships. The Government will also commit $47 million to fund a national campaign that asks men to consider their own attitudes and behaviours and how they can hold each other to account based on a successful campaign run by Scotland Police called Don’t Be That Guy as well as a survey of secondary students on the issue of consent. As part of the overall commitment, $100 million will be allocated the national prevention organisation OurWatch over five years - representing about a 65 per cent increase in annual funding - to bolster its programs in helping to prevent family and sexual violence. Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins and National Children’s Commissioner Anne Hollonds will also get $5.1 million to develop a survey of secondary school-age students on issues related to consent in partnership with Chanel Contos, founder of Teach Us Consent.
According to an article in The Educator, Australia's peak teacher’s union has slammed remarks made by Federal Education Minister Stuart Robert at a recent independent schools’ conference as “deplorable and absolutely shameful”. Speaking at the Independent Schools Australia National Education Forum 2022 in Canberra, Minister Robert said private schools do not accept “dud teachers”, sending the “bottom 10 per cent of teachers dragging the chain” into the public system, where they are protected from being fired. Minister Robert said PISA test results have slipped in the past 20 years, from fourth to 16th in reading, eighth to 17th in science and 11th to 29th in maths. Associate Professor Chandra Shah, from Monash University’s School of Education Culture & Society, says the Minister’s comments are “ill-informed”. "The reasons for the disparity in PISA outcomes across sectors are multifactorial”, Assoc/Prof Shah said. "However, it is beyond dispute that disparity in total funding and resources available to schools across different sectors is the most important factor”.
According to an article in The Educator, Australia’s principals have responded to the latest report into the health and wellbeing of school leaders, calling for sweeping changes to address worsening levels of burnout, anxiety and violence being experienced by the profession. According to the Australian Catholic University’s recent Australian Principal Occupational Health and Wellbeing Survey, principals and their deputies worked on average at least 55 hours a week, while a quarter of those reported working more than 60 hours a week. A staggering 44 per cent of leaders were threatened and four-in-10 were subjected to physical violence – the second-highest incidence since the survey’s inception in 2011. Thirty-nine per cent of principals reported being physically attacked on the job during 2021. Australian Secondary Principals’ Association president, Andrew Pierpoint, said “We appeal to parents and the community to remain calm and supportive as we transition back to life after COVID and we ask governments to authentically engage with principal associations to problem solve educational issues”.
ABC News reports that for the first time since the start of the pandemic, parents will have fresh and relevant NAPLAN data on the My School website to compare their school's performance. The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), which administers the literacy and numeracy test, said parents could now contrast their school with others of a similar socio-economic profile. Previously the comparisons were much broader with schools in low-income areas ranked alongside wealthy, established powerhouses. "Too often, media organisations try to conduct crude 'league tables'," ACARA chief executive David de Carvalho said. "[They're] based on overall achievement without considering the schools' level of socio-educational advantage or the amount of progress the students have made in the previous two years. "Such comparisons are meaningless." ACARA hopes the new comparison will highlight schools trialling new approaches and seeing improvements, rather than those maintaining an already high base. It is hoped this will increase the relevance of the NAPLAN test by promoting ideas on how to get the best out of students.
The Age reports that NAPLAN, the national literacy and numeracy test, will be held earlier in the year to give teachers more time to act on students’ strengths and weaknesses. Optional assessments for year 6 and 10 students in science, civics and citizenship and digital literacy will also be introduced, but the results will not be reported publicly, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) said. Since it began in 2008, NAPLAN has been held in term two, but a review commissioned by NSW, Queensland and Victoria argued it should be brought forward to make results more useful to teachers. All state and federal education ministers also agreed to introduce opt-in assessments for years 6 and 10 but rejected proposals to test critical and creative thinking and change the year groups that sit the tests. The ACARA recently issued a statement saying the 2023 NAPLAN test would be held in mid-March. The new, opt-in assessments for years 6 and 10 will be rolled out from 2024 to 2026.
According to an article in The Educator, most parents want gender and sexual diversity education in schools, a new nationwide study has found. The study, by Western Sydney University (WSU) researchers Associate Professor Jacqueline Ullman and Associate Professor Tania Ferfolja, involved 2,000 parents of public-school children from Kindergarten to Year 12. It found that over 80 per cent of Australian parents support the teaching of gender and sexuality diversity in schools. It is the first comprehensive survey of parents on whether they believe gender and sexuality diversity should be included in classroom discussions. Published in the journal “Sex Education”, the survey was conducted to be as representative of the broad Australian population as possible, including participants from a variety of religions, cultural backgrounds and education levels. According to the researchers, the findings suggest Australian schools could update some aspects of Relationships and Sexuality Education, particularly as evidence shows routine discrimination against diverse young people.
According to an article in the Herald Sun, Victorian students will be among thousands of school kids around the country ditching their classes in a nationwide climate strike this week. From Friday March 25, students will descend on Melbourne’s CBD for a four-day protest to call for a halt on oil and gas projects, including a stop to the contentious Adani mine. Organisers of the youth-led movement School Strike 4 Climate movement say they will be walking out of their classrooms and storming the streets of the city to demand action from politicians about what they have dubbed a climate crisis. The group’s primary demands include reaching net zero emissions by 2030, a move to 100 per cent renewable energy and exports by the same year, as well as financial support and employment for those working in the fossil fuel industry. A plan released by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor in October last year aims to slash net emission to zero two decades later, by 2050.
According to the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), in 2021, the NESA Board endorsed a program to review registration manuals with the aim to reduce administrative burden and strengthen NESA’s risk-based approach to regulation. NESA is now seeking feedback from non-government schools to identify specific areas causing unnecessary burden on schools; identify evidence of compliance that require clarification; propose refinements to the manual; and determine where NESA could provide further advice to schools. Schools can opt into consultation either by online survey, which is open until 1 April 2022, or a meeting. NESA will also consult with sector representatives. They are also invited to provide a written response. In 2023, NESA will release a new manual.
The Canberra Times reports that Catholic school staff could go on strike in term 2 as negotiations over pay and conditions in New South Wales and the ACT stall. Independent Education Union delegates voted to begin the process of taking protected industrial action at a council meeting on Saturday. Acting branch secretary Carol Matthews said the union had not received any response to their log of claims submitted in November, leaving teachers and support staff feeling frustrated. Negotiations with representatives of the 11 Catholic Education Diocese will continue this term. If no significant progress is made in the fortnightly meetings, the union will proceed with a formal protected action ballot in early term 2. Industrial action could include stopping work, wearing campaign badges or making public statements. Catholic School administrators are awaiting outcome of the NSW public school negotiations, where the NSW Teachers' Federation is also calling for a 10 to 15 per cent pay increase over two years.
ABC News reports that Tasmania's Premier Peter Gutwein has spoken for the first time about wrestling free from a teacher who sexually assaulted him when he was 16 years old. Mr Gutwein was asked at the end of a recent COVID briefing whether he would discipline members of his own party who were heard groaning during Question Time in response to a question about the state's upcoming Commission of Inquiry into child sexual abuse. Mr Gutwein said that it troubled him “to have a victim-survivor that felt this government was not being supportive”. Mr Gutwein went on to describe his own experience of sexual assault, where a former teacher he had known for a long period of time “put their arm around me and they grabbed for my groin, tried to get their hand down my pants.” He said he had reached out to the victim-survivor who took offence to the behaviour of his MPs during Question Time, an event for which Gutwein later stood up in Parliament to “unreservedly apologise” for. "I hope they get in touch," he said. "I know what the loss of trust feels like, I know what the shame feels like."
ABC News reports that Sri Lanka cancelled exams for millions of school students as the country ran out of printing paper, with Colombo short on dollars to finance imports. Education authorities said the term tests, scheduled to be held a week from Monday, had been postponed indefinitely due to an acute paper shortage as Sri Lanka contends with its worst financial crisis since independence in 1948. Official sources said the move could effectively hold up tests for around two thirds of the country's 4.5 million students. The cash-strapped South Asian nation of 22 million people announced this week that it would seek an IMF bailout to resolve its worsening foreign debt crisis and shore up external reserves. The International Monetary Fund confirmed it was considering President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's surprise request to discuss a bailout.
PerthNow reports that the ponytail is out of fashion in Japan, with schools banning female students from having the hairstyle. Education officials claim that because it exposes the nape of the neck it could “sexually excite” male students. A 2020 survey suggested one in 10 schools in the Fukuoka prefecture of the country had outlawed the ponytail. Former middle school teacher Motoki Sugiyama said it came down to concern that “boys will look at girls”. “I’ve always criticised these rules, but because there’s such a lack of criticism and it’s become so normalised,” he told Vice. “Students have no choice but to accept them.” Other “draconian” restrictions include the shade of socks, skirt length, eye brow shape and even hair colour. However, Japan schools are far from alone when it comes to bizarre regulations. A Reddit thread in 2021 allowed students to highlight the “dumbest rule your school enforced”, with one Reddit user disclosing a ban on standing in circles because of the potential for “scandalous activity” and writing that “we stood in squares instead”.
According to an article in NZ Herald, a top Auckland girls' school contacted parents last week to warn them of the dangers of a game students have been playing and posting to social media in which they deprive themselves of oxygen and blackout. Footage of Westlake Girls High School students fainting, and in one case appearing to go into a fit, after playing the game has prompted calls to parents from the school on Auckland's North Shore. Another video of a similar stunt from a boys' school the Herald has been unable to identify has also recently appeared on social media. While some of the stunts filmed and posted to TikTok appear to be fake, with students just acting as if they'd passed out, several of the clips look real.
In 2018, US publication Time published a feature article entitled: "Kids Are Playing the 'Choking Game' to Get High. Instead, They're Dying". The article reports that between 1995 and 2007, 82 children between the ages of 6 and 19 died after playing the "choking game" in the US. In 2015, the Herald reported on a 10-year-old boy from Glenbrae School in Glen Innes who had played the "blackout" game with older students and badly hit his head. The child needed medical attention from a doctor and was plagued by dizziness and headaches after the incident.