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

Make privacy a priority in 2021: Joint statement by Privacy Authorities Australia

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has published a joint media statement by privacy regulators from across Australia to mark the start of Privacy Awareness Week 2021 (3 to 9 May). Privacy Awareness Week recognises the essential value of personal information: to our economy and digital environment, to the delivery of vital services, and in our daily lives. Its importance has been highlighted through the COVID-19 pandemic, as the speed and success of public health responses depended on public confidence in the use of personal information. As we strengthen our efforts to overcome the impacts of the pandemic, personal information will be a key factor in our recovery. For Privacy Awareness Week, privacy authorities from around Australia are joining together to call on government agencies, business and the community to make privacy a priority in 2021 and beyond. In our increasingly connected world, securing personal information is critical to protecting privacy, maintaining data flows and preventing harm.

New program helps young people take control of social media dilemmas

The Educator reports that a recent survey conducted by the Office the eSafety Commissioner found that more than two-fifths of young people (44 per cent) experienced something negative online over the course of six months ending in September 2020. The study also revealed that three-quarters of respondents felt there were information gaps, not only on how to address their own bad experience, but also how to support others going through the same incidents. According to the International Social Media Association (ISMA) Youth Council, young people are being overwhelmed by social media, without the skills or knowledge to support their engagement and address concerns around bullying, safety, privacy or self-image. To tackle this issue, ISMA has announced a new program, called “Take Control”, which provides young people, parents and teachers with the tools and framework to deal with social media issues in the most positive way. The first Take Control event will be held on May 4, during Privacy Awareness Week.

Digital devices a “negative distraction” for kids, major report finds

The Educator reports that 83 percent of parents think their children are negatively distracted by digital devices, a major survey of 2,500 parents, grandparents and caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic has found. The Growing Up Digital Australia report, released by the Gonski Institute for Education at UNSW Sydney last week, is part of an international research project, including Harvard Medical School (US) and Alberta Teachers Association (Canada). The study investigated how digital media and technologies impact children’s wellbeing, health, and eventually learning at school and found that, while parents acknowledge digital devices as being important to their child’s learning, they are finding it increasingly difficult to moderate their child’s digital habits at home. Professor Pasi Sahlberg, Deputy Director of the Gonski Institute for Education said the report’s Phase 2 findings confirm what Australian teachers and principals told the Institute last year.

Value of international student sector to plunge 50 per cent – report

The Educator reports that the value of Australia’s international student sector is expected to plunge 50 per cent as border closures persist, new modelling from Victoria University’s Mitchell Institute shows. Currently, more than 150,000 international students are stuck outside Australia, and with the COVID-19 virus overwhelming the health systems of India, the US and Brazil, there are fears that borders will remain closed well into next year. The Mitchell Institute’s “Stuck in transit: International student update report” uses the latest data to examine the impact of a third academic year of no international student arrivals on Australia's economy. For the first time, the report also examined the impact of online learning. According to the modelling, Australia’s international education sector will shrink from $40.3 billion in 2019 to $20.5 billion by the end of 2022, putting massive financial strain on universities already struggling to recover.

Testing times for schools

The Australian reports that, following a 12-month review process, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority unveiled draft revisions to the national school curriculum last week, comprising hundreds of pages of proposed tweaks to the documents that guide the teaching of English, the humanities and arts, mathematics, science, physical education and health, languages, and technology. The proposed changes include the promotion of Indigenous history, culture and perspectives, whereas overall content taught within the humanities has been reduced significantly. Ancient history and the study of Western civilisation, including the role of Christianity in Australia’s heritage, are primed for a significant cut. Indigenous authors will be included in the English curriculum across all levels, with students from the first year of school upwards to study texts created by First Nations Australian authors. While the response has been lukewarm at best, the curriculum review has thrown up the age-old question: what is the purpose of education?

“Still a way to go” on consent and power content in new Australian curriculum

The Age reports that education experts say planned changes to the Australian curriculum mandating that students learn about consent and the role of power in relationships for the first time are a positive development but could more explicitly link those themes to sexual relationships and gender-based violence. Guidance on teaching about respectful relationships, sexuality and consent has been strengthened in the proposed kindergarten to year 10 national health and physical education syllabus, released by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority last Thursday. Deakin University Associate Professor Debbie Ollis, a consent education expert who advised ACARA on the proposed changes, said there were limits to what a curriculum could achieve on its own and the challenge was now ensuring that teachers had access to support materials and training on how to teach consent in the context of sexual relationships.

The code of silence could develop racial bias in children

The Echo reports that a new study by Monash University has found that children are capable of discussing issues of racism in the classroom and with friends, but parents and teachers are actively avoiding these conversations. An analysis by researchers in Monash University’s Faculty of Education shows that a code of silence on discussing racism by adults could develop elements of racial bias in childhood that become deeply ingrained and resistant to change in adulthood. But, teachers and parents also need to have the necessary training and feel confident to have these conversations with children, and provide the adequate space and time to do so. Lead author, psychologist and PhD candidate, Hannah Yared, says research shows that adults don’t like talking about race, and they especially don’t like talking about race with children. Hannah said school was not only a place where children experienced racism, it is a space where children learned positive and negative messages about race.

Education alarm as attendances plunge in remote schools

The Australian reports that Indigenous school attendance rates plunged last year, particularly in remote districts, with some areas reporting that not one child met the 90 per cent threshold deemed necessary for sustained progress in learning. The NT is home to about 40 per cent of all Australian children living in very remote areas. The NT Education Department appeared reluctant to discuss its performance record. When contacted about pandemic attendance, it took more than three weeks to approve the release of standardised figures normally published online. A written statement said ensuring every student could access and was engaged in education “is a key priority for the Department of Education”. The figures show average attendance was down 10 percentage points or more in 2020 in at least 22 government schools (almost all remote) and by up to 10 percentage points in a further 71 schools.

Australian childhood immunisation rates continue to break records

According to a media release from the Commonwealth Minister for Health, the Hon Greg Hunt MP, Australian parents continue to show their confidence in vaccinations, with record rates of childhood immunisations in the first quarter of 2021. For the fourth consecutive quarter, the coverage rate for five year olds has increased to a historic 95.22 per cent. This surpasses the national aspiration of 95 per cent, and gives Australia the herd immunity needed to stop the spread of vaccine-preventable diseases. It is also well above the estimated World Health Organization international average immunisation coverage rate of 86 per cent for five year olds, making Australia a world leading vaccination nation. The Childhood Immunisation Education Campaign contributed to the growth in immunisation rates across the country, including in areas where there has been some vaccination hesitancy.

A third of children experience mental health issues after concussion, research finds

The ABC News reports that a review of the literature looking at more than 90,000 children who were concussed found that children take twice as long to recover from concussion than adults, with one in four children experiencing symptoms beyond one month post-injury. The research found 36.7 per cent of children who are concussed experience internalised mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress. It also found 20 per cent had externalising problems such as aggression, attention problems and hyperactivity. Researcher Alice Gornall said most children recovered within two weeks, but for others, it took much longer. She said parents should be on the lookout for how their child was coping emotionally after a concussion. Professor Vicki Anderson, from Melbourne's Murdoch Children's Research Institute, said the research showed the complexity of concussion.

Coming soon: School boarding premises regulation

The VRQA has announced that , from 18 June 2021, it will begin regulating school boarding premises in Victoria. The VRQA webpage includes information to help schools understand what is changing. To reduce the regulatory burden for schools, the school boarding minimum standards closely align to the existing minimum standards and requirements for school registration (the school minimum standards). They also overlap with AS 5725:2015 Boarding Standard for Australian Schools and Residences (the Australian Standards). If a school or organisation already meets the school minimum standards or the Australian Standards, a significant amount of its existing policies and procedures can likely be adapted to meet the school boarding minimum standards. However, the school may need to develop some additional policies and procedures. The VRQA will:

• release an indicator survey to help schools determine if they’ll need to register as a school boarding premises
• provide guidance material to help schools and organisations understand how they can meet the minimum standards and where they may have to develop new policies and procedures
• develop new Guidelines to the Minimum Standards and Requirements for the Registration of School Boarding Premises
• update the Guidelines to the Minimum Standards and Requirements for School Registration to reflect requirements for schools that provide boarding services.

The VRQA has also issued the following information about school registration:

• Readiness tool for new school applications — a new tool to help those applying to register a school understand and meet the minimum standards. It contains detailed information about how to demonstrate compliance against requirements related to: governance; enrolment; curriculum and student learning; care, safety and welfare; staff employment; school infrastructure.
• Webinar: Becoming an RTO (Registered Training Organisation) – the quality compliance audit process — to be held on Wednesday 5 May 2021 from 10.00 am to 12.00 midday. It will cover: the regulatory framework, including regulation and legislation; Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF) and VRQA guidelines; the minimum standards and requirements for RTO registration; the application process and requirements; financial capability assessments; the audit process.
• Webinar with John Somerset: Practical financial governance for independent schools – will be held on Thursday 13 May 2021 from 10.00 to 11.00 am. It will be led by John Somerset and conclude with a 30-minute Q&A session. The VRQA’s Finance Manager will also be available to respond to questions about the financial information required in new school applications.

Independent Schools Queensland appoints new CEO

The Educator reports that Independent Schools Queensland (ISQ) has announced Christopher Mountford as its incoming CEO, replacing David Robertson, who retires in July. Mountford, who is currently Executive Director at the Property Council of Australia (Queensland Division), is an alumnus of an independent school, holds a Bachelor of Arts (Political Science) and a Bachelor of Economics and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). He is also a volunteer Parent Ambassador for Act for Kids, an Australian charity focused on treating and preventing child abuse. In an interview with The Educator, outgoing ISQ CEO David Robertson said he is proud to have worked in and served the independent schooling sector for more than 30 years. “Over this period, I have witnessed strong growth in independent school numbers, student enrolments and the teaching workforce as well as greater sophistication of school operations and offerings in response to ongoing community demand and community expectation,” Robertson told The Educator.

State scraps annual report detailing senior results of every high school

The Courier-Mail reports that until this year, the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority’s annual Year 12 Outcomes Report detailed how every school’s senior students performed, including how many received top OP scores, senior certificates and VET qualifications. But the transition to a new Queensland Certificate of Education system which saw last year’s Year 12s receive an ATAR rather than an OP has coincided with the QCAA’s decision to dump the report. The move comes six weeks after the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) banned schools and the media from publishing comparisons of school performance in national literacy and numeracy tests. But states such as Victoria have publicly released extensive information on each school’s 2020 Year 12 results, including the median study score for every school and the percentage of study scores of 40 and above. QCAA chief executive Chris Rider said the QCAA would provide individual schools with their own data on their students’ achievements.

INTERNATIONAL

Quebec sets sights on offering vaccine to teens, a move viewed as crucial in taming pandemic (Canada)

The CBC reports that the Quebec provincial government is also aiming to vaccinate 12-to-17 year olds as early as this summer, once it has made doses available to all adults and ensured they are safe for younger people. Health Minister Christian Dubé told Radio-Canada last Friday that vaccinating teens would be a priority and that they could be eligible for a shot before the return of the school year. Quebec is still waiting for approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from Health Canada and the province's own vaccination committee for 12-to-15 year olds. Dr Horacio Arruda, the province's public health director, has said his team is closely studying the data and looking at ways to get teens vaccinated as soon as possible. Vaccinating older children is viewed by experts as a crucial part of curtailing the pandemic. Medical experts are seeing more COVID-19 infections among Canadian youth in the third wave, but say serious illness or death remains rare for children and teens.

Accelerating the universal prohibition of corporal punishment in educational settings (Global)

According to the World Education Blog, corporal punishment by school staff is not the only form of violence that children in educational settings are subject to, but it is a particularly egregious and harmful one. As well as violating children’s rights, overwhelming evidence shows that the use of corporal punishment has serious negative impacts on children, including their educational achievements. A recent study found that the brains of children who had been spanked were altered in the regions that regulate emotional responses, the same regions that change in children who had experienced sexual abuse, physical violence or psychological maltreatment, typically viewed as “worse” than spanking. Corporal punishment also undermines positive teacher-child relationships and, far from teaching children to behave well, it teaches them that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflict. Only a month ago, the Republic of Korea became the latest country to legislate to ban corporal punishment against children in all settings, which includes schools and homes.