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

“I’d just like to get on with my job” – the barriers facing science teachers in Australia

The Conversation surveyed more than 300 primary and high school science teachers about their work and workloads. The research was done with the Science Teachers Association of NSW and respondents came from a mix of government, private and Catholic schools. Teachers reported that they were burnt out, saying that they were “exhausted” by all the administration involved in their jobs. To meet regulatory requirements, teachers have to document things including detailed professional development, maintaining their accreditation and student records. Some of this is necessary but the volume has become unmanageable. On top of this general administration burden, science teachers also need to manage science supplies, test experiments and submit risk assessments for them. Real actions to help science teachers would include giving them access to compliance and risk assessment technologies to make it easier for them to meet regulations around health and safety.

Australia’s teacher workforce ageing and shrinking – major report

According to The Educator, Australia’s teacher workforce is ageing and shrinking as fewer people enter the profession, the largest ever survey of our teachers has revealed. The latest data, based on the responses of almost 32,000 teachers across all states and territories, shows that the current pace of teacher workforce growth will not keep up with increasing student demand. Workforce data in 2020 indicated that more than a third (38 per cent) of all registered teachers are aged 50 years and over, a factor that will contribute to future teacher shortages. One of the report’s more encouraging findings was that the percentage of teachers intending to leave the workforce before retirement fell in 2020 (21 per cent) compared with 2018 (26 per cent). However, Edmund Mission, Deputy CEO of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, said that retention measures will be extremely important to prevent future teacher shortages.

Youth mental health improves despite COVID pressure

According to Australian National University (ANU), the mental health and wellbeing of young Australians has dramatically improved, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The findings come from the ANU Centre for Social Research and Methods' COVID Impact Monitoring survey, which has examined the effect of the pandemic on Australians for more than two years and across 12 waves of data collection. According to the researchers, the latest survey shows that Australians aged 18 to 24 are feeling more positive about their lives and their future and are experiencing less psychological distress. "More than two in three, 67.4 per cent, of young Australians said their life had improved in the last 12 months," study co-author Professor Nicholas Biddle said. Professor Biddle also said that it was important to note that levels of psychological distress were still above pre-pandemic levels, but much lower than what they were in 2020 and when COVID took a hold in Australia.

Social media encourages teen substance use – study

According to The Educator, a major analysis of drug and alcohol use content has shown that it is depicted positively on social media, encouraging substance abuse among teens and putting them at risk of developing drug and alcohol issues. The University of Queensland study examined how drug and alcohol use content was portrayed across social media. University of Queensland PhD student Brienna Rutherford led the study. She says that this positive depiction is concerning because adolescents and young adults are the most vulnerable and heaviest users of social media globally, spending an average of eight hours a day online. “There’s evidence to show teens who are exposed to high levels of substance use are more likely to use and develop issues with alcohol, tobacco and cannabis,” Rutherford said. Rutherford said that better restrictions are needed on social media platforms to ensure that underage users are not engaging with or exposed to potentially harmful content.

NESA News – Check-In Week

According to the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA), as HSC students prepare to check out of the school gates, NESA is encouraging them to check in – with each other, friends, family and the school community. Stay Healthy HSC Check-In Week runs from Monday 19 September – Friday 23 September. Throughout the week, NESA will be sharing information, resources and messages of support to ensure that students feel supported in the lead up to exams. A check-in week kit can be downloaded from the NESA website.

“Not to be employed”: Former principal sanctioned over NSW school asbestos saga

The Age reports that the former principal of a high school in NSW has been placed on a “not to be employed” list by the Education Department and the deputy principal was demoted after a positive asbestos sample found at the school went undisclosed for six years, a parliamentary inquiry has heard. A current teacher at the school gave evidence to the inquiry that he believed that the now-retired principal may have failed to act out of a desire to avoid disruption at the school and maintain strong HSC results. Parents say that they have been left in the dark through the years-long saga and are still concerned for their children’s safety after potentially being exposed to asbestos fibres, a substance which can cause asbestosis and certain cancers. The Education Department said that although proper process was not followed by senior school staff and the Government was not aware of the positive result until April this year, there is no evidence of a deliberate cover-up.

Victoria’s most vulnerable children “failed by authorities”

The Age reports that Victorian authorities failed to protect the most vulnerable children from sexual predators, the Commissioner for Children and Young People has said, after an Ombudsman investigation found that the state had one of the country’s weakest systems to screen adults who work with children. Ombudsman Deborah Glass said that former youth worker Alexander Jones slipped through the cracks when authorities missed multiple “highly concerning” red flags. Jones was last year convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy. Jones briefly worked at Melbourne City Mission but gained unauthorised access to dozens of files in the child protection system for more than a year after he left his position. Glass said that she found “serious shortfalls” in Victoria’s working with children screening because the authority was “unable to consider relevant and highly concerning police and child protection intelligence to assess Alexander Jones’ suitability to work with children.”

Victoria extends tutors in classrooms, seeks offshore teachers

The Age reports that small-group tutoring will continue in Victorian classrooms to help students most disadvantaged by remote learning during the pandemic, as the Government seeks to recruit international teachers to plug staff shortages. The Victorian Government announced that it would spend $258 million putting teaching students, retired teachers, teachers on leave and casual relief teachers into schools next year. Close to 100,000 school students – about one in 10 of the state’s students – were tutored this year at more than 2000 government, Catholic and low-fee independent schools. Eighty-eight per cent of primary school principals and 75 per cent of secondary school principals reported that their students’ results had improved, and attributed that to the program, according to a report by consultant Deloitte cited by the Government. The report is yet to be released.

Indigenous cultural camps teach Queensland city school students on Gunggari country

ABC News reports that 65 per cent of the general Australian community in 2020 said that they never or rarely socialise with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, according to Reconciliation Australia. That's despite 56 per cent of the general community viewing the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians as very important. That's why Indigenous elders have invited students and others from across Australia onto their Mitchell “Yumba” – their spiritual home – for camps to share their culture and knowledge. The Yumba was a dedicated Aboriginal reserve where Gunggari families lived between the 1930s and mid-1960s. The small homes were eventually bulldozed in 1968, but the old school remains, as does the spiritual significance. The camps began in September 2021 after COVID-19 restrictions meant that camp groups had to look for closer-to-home options instead of international trips. Since then, 14 groups have embarked on the spiritual journey.

Police arrest registered child sex offenders in South Australia's largest operation in recent years

ABC News reports that South Australian police arrested 13 sex offenders for possessing child exploitation material, in a statewide sweep during National Child Protection Week. Over two days, police went to 377 addresses belonging to registered child sex offenders and searched 267 houses. Officers looked for any evidence of breaches to the Child Sex Offenders Registration Act, which has a range of obligations from maintaining internet user accounts to having contact with children. Acting Assistant Commissioner Stephen Taylor said that 62 child sex offenders were arrested or reported. Of those, 13 people allegedly possessed child exploitation material, with six of them remanded in custody to face court at a later date. Mr Taylor said that the operation was the largest done in recent years. "It's always concerning I think when there is any offending against children, that's why we adopt a zero-tolerance approach," he said.

Student Council selected to represent young people of Western Australia

According to the Government of Western Australia, Education and Training Minister Sue Ellery announced that 38 students have been selected to make up the inaugural Western Australian Student Council for 2022-23. The public school students from Years 10 and 11 have been chosen to represent their more than 300,000 peers across Western Australia and offer the Education and Training Minister a student's perspective on policy and reform. Some of their tasks will include attending ministerial meetings, liaising with schools and students in their regions, attending student leadership activities and providing feedback to the Department of Education on various initiatives. "It's fantastic that these young people have expressed an interest in representing the voice of students and engaging with education policy, to help shape the future of young people in our State," the Minister said.

Tasmania's Commission of Inquiry into child abuse wraps up – but will the problems be fixed?

ABC News reports that in November 2020, then-premier Peter Gutwein announced that there would be a Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government's Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings. The inquiry revealed inept systems that weren't designed to catch grooming or paedophiles, a lack of training in recognising grooming or child sexual abuse, ineffective complaint systems, underqualified staff, serious reports that were misplaced, "shredded" or labelled "outright misleading" and a lack of will to do anything more than what was required. Elsewhere, in the education system, the inquiry revealed that paedophile teachers were kept at work while investigations dragged on. In some cases, they were simply moved to other schools. The Commission of Inquiry has shown that not only did Tasmania fail to protect children from sexual abuse, in many cases it enabled it. The Commission of Inquiry's final report is due in May.

INTERNATIONAL

Ombudsman highlights student mistreatment at Bethlehem College (New Zealand)

According to 1news.co.nz, an ombudsman’s investigation into complaints about the exclusion and expulsion of students at Tauranga’s Bethlehem College has found that the board’s decision-making process was “unreasonable” and the record-keeping “inadequate”. Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier’s findings relate to complaints about disciplinary action against five students in 2020. The college said that they have taken “full responsibility” for the issues and apologised to the students and their families. Two investigations were conducted by Boshier; the first relates to the decision of the school board to exclude a student based on “gross misconduct” following the decision of the principal to suspend the student due to “continual disobedience.” The second concerned the decision of the board to expel a group of students based on “gross misconduct.” Boshier identified “significant gaps” in the documentation about the students’ alleged misbehaviour provided by the board.

Education technology exploiting children's data for commercial gain – report (United Kingdom)

According to newshub.co.nz, a nine-year-old child sits down at their desk at the start of the day, and logs on to their school's education technology system. Within moments, a host of companies are tracking them. Louise Hooper witnessed this exchange in a new investigation into two products widely used in UK schools and how they are used there. Hooper, a human rights lawyer, is co-author of a new report from London's 5Rights Foundation. The foundation said that small countries like New Zealand should follow the likes of the Netherlands and look to curb education technology that spies on children. Its investigation concludes that just how exposed kids are varies between schools, but in general digital classrooms are flouting data protection laws to exploit children's data "for commercial gain".

US States Fail to Protect Children’s Rights (United States of America)

According to Human Rights Watch, United States state laws overwhelmingly fail to meet international child rights standards, with the vast majority failing to protect children. A new Human Rights Watch interactive scorecard assessed 12 specific state laws in all 50 states against standards set by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the primary international treaty on the rights of children. The laws address four issues: child marriage, corporal punishment, child labour and juvenile justice. The United States is the only country that has failed to ratify the Convention, ratified by 196 countries. The CRC, adopted by the United Nations in 1989, addresses children’s rights to education, health, an adequate standard of living, freedom of expression, protection from violence and exploitation, and a broad array of other rights. In the United States, many of the issues addressed by the Convention are left to the jurisdiction of individual states, and there is wide variation from state to state.