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 Sydney Morning Herald reports that the COVID-19 pandemic and prolonged lockdown are severely damaging the mental health of young people in NSW, with emergency department visits for self-harm and suicidal ideation up 31 per cent for children and teenagers compared with last year. NSW Chief Psychiatrist Murray Wright told The Sun-Herald that the ongoing lockdown, while necessary for public health reasons, was especially hard for adolescents who made up the bulk of self-harm and mental health problems in the 0-17 age group. NSW Health’s fortnightly internal report on mental health service demand and care, dated August 17 and obtained by The Sun-Herald, shows demand for services has risen among all age groups since the pandemic began, but the impact is most severe for children and teenagers. Dr Wright said self-harm among adolescents had been increasing in the western world for the past decade, so the impact of the pandemic came on top of the long-term trend.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that school chaplains would gain more federal funding to help young students through the pandemic under a proposal from Coalition MPs to extend what Prime Minister Scott Morrison called a signature government program. Warning of the pressure on younger Australians from months of lockdown, government MPs pushed on Tuesday for new mental health programs and named the $61.4 million-a-year chaplaincy scheme as a leading candidate for greater federal support. But the idea worried others in the weekly meeting of the Coalition party room because of their long-standing concern that teenagers should receive counselling from qualified professionals rather than chaplains. The Federal Government signed a four-year agreement with the states and territories in 2019 to spend $245.7 million on school chaplains, with this year’s May budget forecasting ongoing funding of $61.4 million a year. Of this, $11.3 million goes to NSW, $12.8 million to Victoria, $18.4 million to Queensland and $7.7 million to Western Australia each year.
According to the Examine newsletter in The Age, there is strong evidence that COVID-19 poses very little threat to children. There is good evidence that Delta does not do much to increase that risk. Yet in NSW and Victoria we have pulled nearly all children out of face-to-face schooling. There is some evidence – although contested – suggesting this exposes children to negative effects, some short-term, some potentially life-long. The evidence we have from school closures pre-COVID is they are bad for kids’ development, health and wellbeing. Make no mistake: it is extremely rare, but children do die of COVID-19 (385 children have died of COVID-19 in America – versus 623,985 adults). But the direct risks to children are very small, all things considered. The risk of being out of school, at least in Australia, is contested and we likely won’t know for decades. The benefit to children from this policy appears to be a very small reduction – and perhaps no reduction at all – in the risk of infection. It possibly benefits wider society, although the evidence is again weak.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that, as Australia races towards the COVID vaccine targets set out in the Doherty Institute’s national plan, one question is increasingly dominating discussions about the roll-out: when can children get the jab? It’s still not clear when the 4 million primary school aged children in Australia will become eligible as trials of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines continue. According to polling conducted for The Sunday Age and The Sun-Herald by Resolve Strategic, a majority of Australians, 53 per cent, want children under 12 to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The Resolve Political Monitor survey of 1,607 people was conducted during the period from August 17 to 21 and the results have a margin of error of 2.5 per cent. However, there remains a degree of uncertainty about vaccinating children against coronavirus. In comparison, around 95 per cent of Australian children aged 4 and under participate in the national immunisation program for diseases such as measles, tetanus and polio.
The New Daily reports that Health Minister Greg Hunt expects to be able to make the Moderna coronavirus jab available to young Australians as the vaccination program ramps up in coming weeks. The Therapeutic Goods Administration has already given the green light for the Pfizer vaccine to be available for 12-year olds and above, with bookings to start from September 13. “This fortnight we’re expecting to get advice from the TGA on Moderna for 12 to 17 year olds … I’m hopeful that will be added which will give a second vaccine,” Mr Hunt told Sky News’ Sunday Agenda. “As additional vaccines come on board, we will make sure that every Australian has the opportunity to be vaccinated at the earliest possible time.” Under the national COVID-19 recovery plan, the easing of virus restrictions will begin when double-dose vaccinations of 70 and 80 per cent in over 16-year olds have been reached. Labor’s health spokesman Mark Butler believes it would be better if over-12s were included in those targets.
The ABC News reports that the Northern Territory Government has announced that all children aged between 12 and 15 are now eligible to access the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in the NT. The previous week the NT Government made the jab accessible to all children aged between 12 and 15 except children in Greater Darwin, who were subject to eligibility requirements. With the vaccine now open to all NT children between 12 and 15, vaccine bookings are available in Greater Darwin, Katherine, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, a statement from the NT Health Minister said. According to the statement, eligible children living in remote communities will be able to access the vaccine as part of the NT Government's remote vaccine rollout. The announcement comes alongside an undertaking from the Health Department for the vaccine to be provided to students in middle and senior schools through the school immunisation program from early September.
According to an opinion piece in the Financial Review by Jordana Hunter (education program director), Stephen Duckett (health program director) and Anika Stobart (associate) of the Grattan Institute, the national cabinet has now accepted advice to vaccinate children 12 and over, but this will take time to roll out and still leaves younger children in limbo. Meanwhile, there remains no coherent national guidance on managing inevitable COVID-19 outbreaks in schools and childcare settings. While NSW’s COVID-19 plan to return students to the classroom in Greater Sydney from October 25 leaves many questions unanswered, at least it is a start. But without a robust plan to manage the risks of COVID-19 in schools and childcare settings, the immense disruption to children’s education, social development and mental health could well extend into a third year. All governments need to include protocols for schools and childcare settings in any broader plans to ease restrictions, particularly now that community case numbers are so high in some states.
The Age reports that Australian children’s education and development are at risk of falling behind during prolonged school closures, as the Delta outbreaks threaten to extend the months of in-class schooling Victorian and NSW students have already missed. Before the latest COVID-19 outbreaks, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation found Australia was in the middle of the pack in terms of school closures, ranking 113th out of 210 countries, with 29 weeks of school closures from February 2020 to June this year. Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge stressed this week that schools must remain open once full vaccination rates hit 70 per cent, in line with the plan agreed to in the national cabinet. Measuring school closures is difficult within each country as systems vary significantly. Professor Sharon Goldfeld, a developmental paediatrician at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, said Australia was behind other countries in developing clear strategies for keeping schools open as the virus circulated in the community.
The Australian reports that two members of the NSW Education Standards Authority have launched an extraordinary attack on the Berejiklian government’s roadmap to return face-to-face schooling, criticising delays to HSC exams and claiming discussions have been compromised by poor communication and conflicting health advice. The Australian has obtained a scathing letter signed by NESA board members Geoff Newcombe and Jenny Allum in which they broke ranks to blame the government over the decision to delay HSC exams until November 9 while allowing students to return on October 25. This is a government decision, not a NESA decision,” said Dr Newcombe and Ms Allum, both of whom sit on the NESA COVID-19 Response Committee. On Monday night, NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant held an in-person discussion with board members in which she defended the decision for the HSC to be delayed until November 9, saying this would allow more students to receive vaccinations before sitting their exams.
The Educator reports that, as COVID-19 infections swept through schools in Australia’s east coast, reports have also surfaced of bullying incidents involving children who contracted the virus. Larne Wellington, child psychologist and director at Positive Families Clinic in Ashgrove [Brisbane], has cautioned schools regarding the incidents and said they needed to take a more active role breaking down the stigma of COVID-19 infections. Wellington added that it was important to make sure that the issue was being discussed, “rather than keeping it all quiet.” This way, the whole school could adopt a “mindset of empathy… as opposed to turning on each other.” In an article published in The Conversation, Brian Moore lecturer at the School of Education at Charles Sturt University, and Stuart Woodcock, associate professor at the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University, discussed the challenges of addressing this type of behaviour, and what teachers and parents can do to help.
The Herald Sun reports that female teachers in elite private boys’ schools are being forced to cover up sexual harassment from students, a new study reveals. A Monash University study, which interviewed 32 female teachers from three elite private boys’ schools in Australia, revealed teachers reported that criticising students for their bad behaviour was discouraged as they needed to keep parents “on side”. Some teachers who also had to reprimand students for derogatory sexual jokes and behaviour were subsequently called to a meeting with a supervisor. The researchers said this behaviour raised the question of whether boys were “mobilising parents-school relations to act as a cover for sexual harassment”. The study also found sexual harassment went beyond the reach of the school grounds and was often experienced online, including Facebook and forums. Female teachers also experienced disbelief and denial from other colleagues and some early-career teachers even reported self-blame when an incident took place.
The Financial Review reports that new research reveals that balanced, diverse and strongly independent school councils that are not beholden to the direction set by the principal are strongly correlated to academic and financial performance of schools. The research, which looked at 150 independent schools in Victoria, found a positive and significant association between board effectiveness and the academic and financial results. It found that in situations where school principals’ decisions and power were unfettered, problems were likely to ensue. Dr Luisa Unda, an adjunct lecture in accounting from Monash University, who is a co-author of the paper, said school boards needed to be diverse in terms background and skills, and directors needed to be rotated regularly to ensure independence. Michelle Green, chief executive of Independent Schools Victoria, said effective schools had clear boundaries between the “overall governance of the school, which is the responsibility of the board, and the day-to-day management of the school by the principal”.
The ABC News reports that hundreds of Queensland students are ditching mainstream classrooms and enrolling at independent distance education programs amid the COVID-19 pandemic. There are 12 per cent more students schooling at home through distance education programs in Queensland independent schools than there were before the COVID-19 pandemic, new analysis of non-government school census data shows. Enrolments increased by 434 full-time equivalent students up to 3,925 students between 2020 and 2021, the analysis shows. Overall, enrolments have increased by 52 per cent, or 1,347 pupils since 2016, according to the analysis. There are now 10 Queensland independent schools enrolling distance education students, increasing from seven schools in 2016. Independent Schools Queensland chief executive Chris Mountford said the pandemic had shown that schools could successfully deliver learning remotely, but also that some students preferred to learn from home.
The Age reports that, with more than 70 per cent of its eligible population vaccinated, Canada’s approach for sending children back to the classroom would appear more straightforward than NSW’s current wrestle with a similar issue. However, the daily COVID-19 case tally in Canada has exceeded 1000 for the past two weeks. Several provinces centralised online learning a year ago and, for the new school year, parents could select online or in-person learning for children early this month — before the escalation. While the availability of online learning varies between provinces and schools, an absence of approved vaccines for children under 12 and vaccination rates among teachers and school personnel have made parents wary. Vaccine mandates are not in place for teachers across Ontario, Canada’s biggest province, which has halted the re-entry of many students back into school. The government of Ontario’s health, safety and operational guidance for schools outlines plans to introduce a vaccination disclosure policy for all school board employees. Included in the policy will be rapid antigen testing requirements for staff not immunised against COVID-19.
The Seattle Times reports that the rancorous debate over whether returning students should wear masks in the classroom has moved from school boards to courtrooms. In at least 14 states, lawsuits have been filed either for or against masks in schools. In some cases, normally rule-enforcing school administrators are finding themselves fighting state leaders. Legal experts say that while state laws normally trump local control, legal arguments from mask proponents have a good chance of coming out on top. But amid protests and even violence over masks around the United States, the court battle is just beginning. Mask rules in public schools vary widely. Some states require them; others ban mandates. Many more leave it up to individual districts. At the heart of the debates are parents, scared or frustrated for their children in an unprecedented time. The early court record is mixed. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending universal mask wearing in schools. Students aged 12 and younger remain ineligible for COVID-19 vaccines.