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 Ideagen.
According to The Educator, a new study reveals that organisations operating in the education sector have leaked consumers’ data more than most other industries. The latest research by NordPass found that since late 2019, almost 520 education organisations have suffered data breaches during which various consumer data was leaked. This places the education industry in fifth position among sectors with the most client data leaks. Tomas Smalakys, the CTO of NordPass said that the education industry is particularly vulnerable to data leaks due to factors such as its vast size and the variety of data schools store. Smalakys said that “this is something we notice in a lot of industries where technology and cybersecurity is not at the forefront of the main challenges this sector faces”. Smalakys highlighted the need for principals to assess their school’s cyber security needs to identify potential issues and determine where they might need to start.
According to The Daily Telegraph, AI-generated child abuse material is being posted on social media platforms, sparking serious concerns it will hinder police from tracking down real victims. The eSafety Commission, received its first reports of AI-generated child sexual abuse material last month. The eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said that investigators could tell the AI images were not real, but soon it will be too hard for the human eye to distinguish. Ms Inman Grant said that all child sexual abuse material whether it is real, fake or AI it is harmful because it normalises the sexualisation of children. Former police officer Jon Rouse, said that it is time Australia adopted a powerful facial recognition tool that can quickly identify “real” child abuse victims online, but which is banned here due to privacy concerns. The Australian Federal Police secretly began using the controversial technology but an investigation found it failed to comply with its own privacy obligations. It no longer uses it.
According to The Educator, over a third of school cleaners have been injured on the job amid contractors cutting back hours, a new national survey has found. The ‘More Tasks Than Time’ survey of 300 school cleaners, conducted by the United Workers Union in late July and August, reveals that cleaners are performing more than 600 tasks a day under the terms of the NSW Government’s privatised cleaning contracts, meaning fewer than 45 seconds for each task. According to the survey, 37 per cent said they had been injured at work in the last five years, while 34 per cent said they had experienced bullying, harassment or discrimination at work in the last five years. Injuries sustained on the job include “fractured kneecap from falling down stairs”, “broken wrist”, “broken fingers” and “fractured ankle”, prompting about half of contractors to cut back on cleaning hours in the last five years as a precaution.
According to The Educator, with schools struggling to strike the balance between managing competing needs and finite resources available to meet them, it is unwise to dismiss technology offhand as an unnecessary and costly financial burden. Instead, technology can be a helpful tool to make the most of limited resources. School leaders are encouraged to make accurate assessments of whether their Edtech products are producing a satisfactory return on investment or whether there is an alternate package or solution that might meet more of their needs. Edtech solutions themselves also offer the possibility of cost savings. The ability of Edtech solutions to free up teacher time is also significant. They can ease the burden of lesson planning by automating plans and facilitating the sharing of resources between teachers around the world. Digital solutions can help provide more pictures of student progress and development, allowing teachers to focus attention where it most needed.
According to The Educator, a soon to be released report commissioned by the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers (AAMT) has shown that the relationships teachers develop with students in the classroom is more critical to engaging students than the level of their qualifications in maths. The survey of 2,500 maths students and teachers found that relationships and soft skills from maths teachers led to a better level of student engagement in the subject. Given 35 per cent of teachers have flagged leaving the profession in five years, a shortage of specialist maths teachers has been a concern for many in the education sector, with only a third of maths teachers having a specialist qualification in the subject. Former teacher and Co-Founder of research house Pivot, Cleo Westhorpe, says that survey highlights how the ability of teachers to set high expectations for their students while at the same time boosting their confidence is key.
According to The Herald Sun, secondary teaching degrees will become free under a plan to scale back crippling staff shortages plaguing the state school system. On Tuesday Premier Daniel Andrews and Education Minister Natalie Hutchins unveiled a $229.8m package to grow the school workforce following a campaign from the education union. The scholarships will be available to all students who enrol in secondary school teaching degrees in 2024 and 2025. To be eligible for the scholarship, the recipient must work in the state school system for two years after they graduate. Mr Andrews said that the package was only offered for budding secondary teachers because that’s where workforce pressures are. The Australian Education Union last week revealed that VCE classes were being cancelled and students were forced to sit on the floor in the back of classrooms due to a lack of teachers. The government anticipates the program will result in 4000 graduates.
According to Mirage News, the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) board has welcomed five new people to its board, composed of a broad range of leaders from across education focused professions. Minister for Education Natalie Hutchins announced the new board on Thursday, made up of five returning members and five new members. Four new members being welcomed to the VRQA board will commence on 17 October (Belinda Tynan, Mark Cameron, Geraldine Atkinson, Neil Pharaoh), with Tri Nguyen starting on 1 November. The VRQA undertook a number of activities to attract candidates who are culturally and linguistically diverse, young, LGBTIQ+ individuals, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and people living in rural and regional communities.
According to Nine News, another boy has been charged over the alleged abduction of a 14-year-old in Melbourne's south-east. The 14-year-old is still in a serious condition in the Royal Children's Hospital after the incident, which occurred about 3.35pm on Monday 4 August when he was walking home from school in Glen Huntly. He was allegedly confronted by unknown offenders in a Volkswagen Tiguan before he was forced into the car. A short time later the 14-year-old left the moving car, in unknown circumstances and sustained significant injuries. A 15-year-old Cranbourne boy was arrested in Mentone about 12.50pm on Saturday. He has been charged with multiple counts of armed robbery, robbery, conduct endangering life, intentionally causing serious injury, theft of motor vehicle and theft. He has been remanded to appear at a children's court at a later date. Another boy, 14, was previously charged over the incident and remains before the courts. The investigation is ongoing.
According to The Courier Mail, the Queensland government is considering subsidising teacher training to encourage newcomers into the profession but has stopped short of offering free university degrees. Queensland has been urged to follow the Victorian government which on Tuesday announced that secondary teaching degrees will become free. It comes with Queensland in grips with an industry wide teacher shortage that has forced hundreds of unregistered teachers into classrooms. Catholic Secondary Principals’ Association of Queensland president Dan McMahon urged the state government to follow Victoria’s lead. Queensland Teachers’ Union president Cresta Richardson said that it would welcome further conversations similar to those proposed in Victoria as well as national considerations for university courses like fee free or subsidised degrees. Ms Richardson said that while the new EBA boosted teachers pay, Queensland remained in the grips of an industry wide staff shortage.
According to WA Today, education experts and advocates fighting the decline of play-based learning for young children in Western Australian schools have been given a glimmer of hope that change could be around the corner. Early Childhood Australia WA has been advocating for a state strategy for play-based learning since 2014, arguing that there is too much emphasis on formal assessments and children spend too much time sitting at their desks. The initiative gained widespread community support, including backing from the Commissioner of Children and Young People, more than 10,000 Western Australians, and over 150 associations and organisations. Pauline Roberts, a board member of Early Childhood Australia’s WA branch said that some schools in WA, particularly in the independent sector, had made significant changes towards play-based learning, and there had been an improvement in school results because students were more relaxed and happier at school.
According to The Guardian, only half of the required number of trainee secondary school teachers in England have been recruited as the academic year gets under way, analysis shows. The figures, obtained by the National Education Union (NEU) and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), show ministers are on course to miss their recruitment targets by 48 per cent. Numbers in all subjects except for history, PE and classics are below the government recruitment target, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) has said. Jack Worth, the NFER’s school workforce lead said that “without an urgent policy response to make teaching more attractive, schools will face increasingly intense shortages over the next few years, which are likely to impact negatively on the quality of pupils’ education”.