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 Australian Financial Review reports that Attorney-General Michaelia Cash has tried to calm concerns from within the Coalition about controversial religious freedom laws amid last-minute lobbying before the plan is unveiled next week. The legislation could curtail the power of states and territories to enforce anti-discrimination rules in the hiring practices of religious schools and hospitals, provided organisations have publicly available policies about their values. Provisions allowing medical practitioners to refuse certain procedures have been scrapped. The so-called “Folau clause” – designed to give legal protection to people who make statements of belief in public settings or the workplace – has also been dropped from the plan. The draft legislation is understood to be more conciliatory than previous versions and Senator Cash has told colleagues she is not prepared to push legislation with no chance of passing Parliament.
According to an official notice from the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), the non-government school registration manuals have been amended to reduce compliance and administrative burden on schools and teachers. To ensure schools and teachers can take advantage of the amendments as soon as possible, implementation of the new manuals will commence from 1 January 2022. The requirements for registration and accreditation are detailed in the registration manuals Registered and Accredited Individual Non-government Schools (NSW) Manual and Registration Systems and Member Non-government Schools (NSW) Manual. NESA says they are committed to providing support to assist schools with their compliance, publishing advice and resources in addition to an overview of the manual amendments. These include tracked changes versions of both manuals, proforma self-audit documents, and child protection resources.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that high-fee private schools are claiming the most HSC disability provisions despite the independent sector having the fewest students with special needs, as new data shows claims increased by a third in the last four years. Disability provisions are costly as they often require extra or even private invigilators - who cost $27 an hour - as well as special equipment, complex planning and a team of assessors. The expense is borne by the publicly funded NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA). However, state schools have a higher proportion of students with a funded adjustment under the disability loading scheme and more pupils with “substantial and extensive” loadings than other sectors, federal government figures show. Carol Taylor, a former chief executive of NESA who worked for the organisation for 30 years, said schools in lower socio-economic areas did not apply for them at the same rate as advantaged ones, with common issues being negative stigma or struggle with the process. At advantaged ones, parents and teachers understood how to navigate the system.
SBS Punjabi reports that the New South Wales Government has confirmed that a limited number of international students from India will touch down in Sydney on 24 December. This will be the second chartered plane to arrive in the state, bringing back students who have been stranded overseas due to COVID-prompted border restrictions. International students now have a pathway to return to campuses in NSW through the state's pilot plan, which will bring back a limited number of students, followed by an evaluation before scaling to larger intakes. In line with the quarantine requirements for returning Australians, fully vaccinated students will no longer need to undertake quarantine upon their arrival. Other states including Victoria have indicated a move towards allowing international students to come back. Under the second stage of Federal government approved plans, a number of places will be available for more students to return, including those enrolled with other education providers such as English-language colleges and secondary schools.
The Age reports that Victoria’s religious leaders have condemned moves by the Andrews government to prohibit faith-based schools from sacking or refusing to hire teachers or enrol students based on their gender identity or sexuality. Nineteen leaders from religious communities including the Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu and Sikh faiths say they have “grave concerns” about the government’s proposed legislation, which would narrow exceptions to equal opportunity laws that allow religious bodies and schools to discriminate against a person because of personal characteristics. “This gross overreach could see religious organisations being forced to violate their beliefs and values in managing employment matters,” the faith leaders said in an open letter to Victoria’s Attorney-General, Jaclyn Symes, which was published on Tuesday. About a third of Victorian students are educated in non-government schools including 20 per cent who attend Catholic schools. According to a 2020 Latrobe University report, 62.1 per cent of secondary school students felt unsafe or uncomfortable at school due to their sexuality or gender identity.
The Age reports that unvaccinated schoolchildren aged between 12 and 15 have been given a reprieve from Victorian vaccine mandates and will be free to attend excursions, camps and graduation ceremonies. The exemption, which will begin on Tuesday, has been granted after some principals and parents raised concerns that students who had not had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine faced being excluded from end-of-year milestone events. Children aged 12 to 15 will also be permitted to join their classmates at public places, such as swimming pools and adventure parks, as long as a teacher is present. Schools were informed of the change to health directions on Sunday night. Current directions limit the venues that children can attend if they are aged between 12 and 15 and have not been fully vaccinated.
ABC News reports that Queensland is one of only two states without a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for teachers and childcare workers as it prepares for a wave of cases in unvaccinated children with health experts warning school outbreaks will be "extremely disruptive". Tasmania is the only other state or territory to have not implemented a vaccine mandate for teachers and childcare workers, despite one of the country's leading infectious disease experts saying it was "for their own safety" and Australia's largest provider of childcare enforcing one. Queensland has already mandated COVID-19 vaccination for health, aged and disability care staff as well as police, hospitality workers and truck drivers entering the state. Queensland Education Minister Grace Grace has left open the possibility of a mandate for teachers. When asked why a mandate has not been extended to teachers, Deputy Premier Steven Miles said there was "plenty of time" to consider the issue.
ABC News reports that Tasmania's school year could be delayed in a bid to allow primary school students to get vaccinated against COVID-19, Premier Peter Gutwein says. The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is yet to approve vaccines for five to 11 year olds, but Mr Gutwein told State Parliament he expected that to occur in January, or early in February. That would leave little time for children to take up the chance to get vaccinated before the 2022 school year begins. Mr Gutwein said the Government needed to wait until it got the TGA approval before rolling out the vaccine for that cohort, but is considering pushing back the school year to ensure children had the chance to be vaccinated, based on what public health advice at the time may be. The issue was raised in state parliament by the Greens. Term 1 is due to start on February 9 but that may change.
ABC News reports that child sexual abuse survivor Katrina Munting watched as her abuser was sentenced to jail, but she is now hoping the Education Department will be held accountable for allegedly failing to protect her from the abuse. Ms Munting has launched a civil case in the Supreme Court in Hobart, alleging the department failed to protect her at the time of the abuse and in the years following her disclosure. In August 2020, Marcus James Pollard pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court in Hobart to persistent sexual abuse of a young person. He admitted to abusing then 15-year-old Katrina Bolton on several occasions in 1998 and 1999 at Rose Bay High School. When Ms Munting disclosed some of Pollard's abuse a year after it happened, he, the court heard, was made to resign. However, it was not until Ms Munting made a report to police about 20 years after the abuse that it was investigated. Pollard was sentenced on October 27, 2020, to three years' jail, with a non-parole period of 18 months.
The Guardian reports that rightwing extremists are using Covid controversies and online gaming as a way of recruiting young people, as data shows half of the most serious cases of suspected radicalisation reported by schools and colleges now involve far-right activity. Figures published by the Home Office show twice as many young people in education in England and Wales last year were thought to be at risk of radicalisation by the extreme right-wing, compared with those at risk from Islamic extremists. The new figures from the government’s Prevent anti-extremism programme, covering 2020-21, show that 310 people were referred to Prevent by schools, colleges and universities because of far-right links. Just 157 were referred because of vulnerability to Islamic extremism. Nearly one in three cases involving far-right extremism were passed on to the government’s Channel scheme, which aims to safeguard individuals thought most likely to be drawn into terrorist activity. Sean Arbuthnot, a Prevent coordinator for Leicestershire, said online apps and platforms were increasingly cropping up in referrals, including YouTube, gaming platforms and chat apps such as Discord, as rightwing groups sought to reach young people.
Lawyer says International Criminal Court declines request to open residential school investigation (Canada)
APTN National News reports that a lawyer who was part of a group lobbying the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Canada and the Catholic Church over the residential school system says they’ve been turned down. “Part of their reasoning was that they felt they were prevented as the deaths occurred before Canada ratified the crimes against humanity law,” says Andrew Phypers, one of a dozen lawyers who wrote the ICC requesting an investigation. Brendan Miller, a Calgary lawyer, told APTN News in June the investigation has to be done by an agency outside of Canada. “The fact is, the government of Canada, including the RCMP and including the Vatican, including the churches, all have an invested interest in the truth not coming out,” said Miller. According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, at least 4,000 students died at the 140 institutions the federal government called schools but were used to assimilate First Nation, Inuit and Métis children into Canadian society.