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 Educator, on Monday 23 May, Labor Leader Anthony Albanese was sworn in as Australia’s 31st Prime Minister. Albanese says that from 2023, a $440m Schools Upgrade Fund will give public schools the same level of funding for new buildings and world-class facilities that independent schools receive. The Australian Education Union’s federal president, Correna Haythorpe, said Labor’s victory in the federal election is a “vote of confidence in the fundamental principle of equity in education.” Jacinta Collins, National Catholic Education Commission’s (NCEC) executive director, said “As a priority, we would like to see the religious discrimination bill finalised early in the new parliament”. Beth Blackwood, CEO of the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia, said one of the key tasks facing the new Government and its Minister for Education will be negotiation of the National School Reform Agreement. Matthew Johnson, national president of the Australian Special Education Principals Association (ASEPA), said “Labor had previously announced in their budget reply that they were committed to ‘full and fair’ level of school funding to fight disadvantage. ASEPA hopes that this will include funding for school infrastructure, First Nations initiatives and support for students with disabilities and complex needs”.
According to an article in The Herald Sun, men who attended elite private schools will be probed on how their exclusive education impacted their attitudes towards women, consent and sexism in an Australian-first study by Deakin University researchers. Preliminary findings have so far revealed some “negative” attitudes towards women and “limited” consent and gender education. A research overview stated the study aimed to “place further scrutiny on elite boys’ schools and the men they have produced over time” after several women levelled allegations of sexual assault and historical rape against prominent Australian politicians, who attended prestigious secondary colleges, in 2021. Julia Gillard and Bob Hawke are the only two prime ministers out of 20 since WWII to not have attended boys only secondary schools. Lead researcher Dr Claire Charles said the accusations against high-profile politicians who went to prestigious all-boys’ schools sparked the need to investigate what powerful alumni and potential future leaders were taught about women.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Children’s Court recently found Anna’s* attacker guilty of six counts of sexual intercourse without consent, and one count of intentionally choking without permission. He will be sentenced on August 10. Anna had to see him every day at Katoomba High while the police investigated and finally charged him. But after he was charged, she still had to see him at school. Even when his parents moved him elsewhere, it was not over; his sister and his friends continued to harass her. In response to this case, and a similar one also revealed by the Herald, Education Minister Sarah Mitchell has ordered the NSW Department of Education to review international evidence for best practice in managing situations in which victims of crime attend the same school as their attackers. Gemma McKibbin, a research fellow at the Department of Social Work at the University of Melbourne, said frontline workers such as teachers were under-trained and under-resourced to cope with such complex issues.
According to an article in 7 News, more than 17,000 teachers and staff from 540 Catholic diocesan schools in NSW and the ACT will strike for 24 hours this week. Independent Education Union of Australia NSW/ACT Branch Secretary Mark Northam says teachers will walk off the job on May 27. The industrial action follows a 24-hour strike on May 4 by thousands of NSW public school teachers concerned about a chronic teacher shortage. They are demanding a pay increase above the 2.5 per cent cap on NSW public sector wage rises. IEU members participated in a formal balloting process with all 11 Catholic dioceses endorsing the strike. Catholic school employers had followed the NSW Government's lead in limiting pay rises to 2.04 per cent - "a short-sighted approach that has resulted in the current staffing crisis", he said. "Teachers are leaving the profession and graduates are not entering it." The IEU wants a pay increase of 10 to 15 per cent over two years, pay parity with colleagues in public schools, less paperwork and more class preparation time.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a school in Sydney’s west has boosted its security and surveillance capabilities after police charged a man for cruelty against farm animals housed on the school’s grounds. Blacktown man George Danakis, 43, faced Parramatta Court on Thursday following an investigation into reports of alleged break and enter at St Mary’s Senior High School. Danakis has been charged with 14 offences, including break and enter, committing an act of cruelty upon an animal, bestiality and entering enclosed land without a lawful excuse. Police allege he assaulted goats and sheep housed at a farm on the school premises between Wednesday, April 27, and Wednesday, May 18. The school, which only caters to Year 11 and 12 students, offers agriculture classes and has bred goats and sheep for educational purposes. “All animals on site at the school have been examined by a veterinarian and are all in a stable condition,” said a NSW Department of Education spokesperson, who confirmed the school had added extra security after the man’s arrest. Danakis was refused bail and will appear at Parramatta Local Court again on June 20.
According to an article in The Herald Sun, 18 pronouns have been included in a new guide used by thousands of Victorians school students and staff. The Wear It Purple guide to pronouns include choices such as “fae”, “xe” and “hu” alongside the more widely used she/her, he/him and they/them. The guide also offers gender-neutral pronouns in different languages, including Arabic and Chinese, with a reminder that repeated and deliberate refusal to adopt the right pronoun could be illegal under discrimination laws. Wear It Purple Day is a student-led day of gender and sexual diversity run at more than 500 schools nationally, with the pronoun guide sent out on request to schools. It’s due to take place this year in August. LGBTIQ Health Australia deputy chief executive Zed Tintor said awareness days such as Wear It Purple were extremely important. But he said there was a need for schools to “embed inclusive practice across all systems across its curricula”.
According to the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA), guidelines to reflect Victoria's new Child Safe Standards (new Standards) and new pathways for secondary education in Victoria have been updated. Schools, school boarding premises, registered training organisations (RTOs) and other education providers will be required to comply with the new Standards from 1 July 2022. Updated guidelines for VET providers came into effect on 1 May 2022, so the VRQA can establish before the new Standards commence if they deliver, or intend to deliver, services to persons under 18 years of age. Amendments to the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 introduced a foundation secondary course, a new type of course for Year 11 and 12 students. The relevant guidelines have been updated to include guidance about the requirements for accreditation and awarding of this new category of course.
According to an article in The Herald Sun, behavioural specialists have reported a spike in primary-aged children refusing to go to school after lockdown as experts probe ways to determine just how many students do not want to attend. Researchers say the issue of school refusal is a “beast” to track because school absence records, which do not typically specify why a student is absent, are not detailed enough. School refusal is when a child finds it extremely difficult to attend school, usually due to emotional distress or anxiety. Findings published by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health show school refusal can be detrimental to academic performance, put kids at higher risk of psychiatric illnesses and employment troubles later in life. A report published by Victoria’s Children and Young People Commissioner showed absenteeism was significantly higher in 2021 among some cohorts.
According to an article in The Herald Sun, an investigation is underway into how an unknown hacker streamed a pornographic video to an all-school assembly at a high school in Melbourne’s southeast. The unknown person began streaming what is believed to be a sexually explicit clip in the middle of an online student assembly held by Alkira Secondary College on Monday. But the words “we are two steps ahead … you won’t catch us” followed the video on the screens of everyone who dialled into the assembly. In a letter to parents, acting principal Nalini Naidu said the school would offer parents and students support after the “extremely regrettable” incident. “During assembly an unknown person interrupted the session and briefly screened a highly inappropriate video,” she said. “We immediately ended the assembly. “The Department of Education is working with us to determine how this occurred and to establish the identity of the intruder.”
ABC News reports that an 18-year-old gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school barricaded himself inside a classroom, "shooting anyone that was in his way," an official said, describing the latest in a gruesome, years-long series of mass killings at churches, schools and stores. Lieutenant Christopher Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety told CNN that all victims were in the same fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School. Eventually, the shooter was killed by law enforcement. The carnage began when the 18-year-old suspect, identified as Salvador Ramos, shot his own grandmother, who survived, authorities said. It was the deadliest shooting at a US primary school since 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook in Connecticut almost a decade ago and the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, occurring four years after a gunman fatally shot 10 people at Santa Fe High School in the Houston area.
The Guardian reports that a medical school in Tokyo that made it harder for female students to pass entrance exams has been ordered to pay compensation to 13 women for gender discrimination. Juntendo University said in 2018 that it had raised the bar for women in the exams to “narrow the gap with male students”, as a scandal over medical school admissions uncovered improper practices at several institutions. The University argued at the time that women had better communication skills, and were therefore at an advantage in the interview part of their applications. A Tokyo district court spokesperson said Juntendo had been ordered to pay the plaintiffs, with local media reporting the total compensation came to about ¥8m (£50,000). The University declined to comment.
The Guardian reports that Max Mendoza has been a remarkably persistent student – and a profitable one: he has been enrolled at a public university in Bolivia for 32 years but never graduated, much of it while being paid a government salary to serve as a student leader. On Monday, though, he was detained and sent to jail after a judge ordered a six-month investigation into allegations his tenure as a state-paid student leader constituted a crime. Mendoza, now 52, has unsuccessfully tackled a series of majors — industrial engineering, agronomy and law among them – since entering a university in 1990. But he has held a series of student leadership posts and since 2018, he has been president of the University Confederation of Bolivia, the country’s top student representative, earning $3,000 a month – 10 times the national minimum wage. “He didn’t meet the requirements. He didn’t have a bachelor’s degree [needed] to hold the post,” Judge Javier Vargas said on Monday. Prosecutor William Alave said other long-serving student leaders were also being investigated.