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

From bootcamps in China to Australian schools: How vapes hook children on nicotine

The Age reports that the latest Australian National Drug Strategy Household Survey showed vape use doubled among 14 to 17-year-olds and quadrupled among 25 to 29-year-olds between 2016 and 2019. But anecdotal evidence of a more recent surge has been enough to panic parents and principals who fear a new generation will become addicted to nicotine if government interventions don’t come soon enough. Now, as kids prepare to eventually go back to school, a dozen Melbourne and Sydney schools have installed vape detectors in bathrooms. Both selling and using e-liquid nicotine is illegal in NSW and Victoria, but there is no government body keeping tabs on how many electronic vapes have made their way to Australian shores. A national overhaul of e-cigarette restrictions that kicks in next month will change the regulatory landscape by making nicotine a prescription-only medicine and will place some vapes under the remit of the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Calls for national school ventilation plan, more details on booster shots to protect vulnerable

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a coalition of health experts, architecture experts and the federal opposition are backing a national plan to improve ventilation in classrooms and lay out a road map for booster doses for the most at-risk to suppress the spread of COVID-19. A newly formed network of public health and other experts including Professor Lidia Morawska, a respected global authority on ventilation, called for Australia to be more ambitious with its coronavirus suppression strategy. The group, called OzSAGE, believes with these measures, combined with booster shots targeting new variants, herd immunity could be possible – a goal recently thought to be out of reach due to the infectious Delta strain. Architecture experts who have studied air quality in NSW schools say classrooms should be fitted with carbon dioxide monitors before students return to school to check if there is enough ventilation to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Moderna vaccine approved for children 12 years and older, in line with Pfizer vaccine

The ABC News reports that Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine has been approved by Australian health authorities for children as young as 12. The vaccine was already approved for adults 18 and over, and the Therapeutic Goods Administration has now extended that approval down to teenagers. It brings the vaccine into line with the extremely similar Pfizer vaccine. Both are based on MRNA technology. The two vaccines are the only vaccines available to children, with the AstraZeneca vaccine only available to adults over 18. While both are approved for children aged 12 and over, there is no vaccine for children under 12, and no country in the world has made COVID-19 vaccines broadly available for that age group. The Moderna vaccine is due to arrive in Australia later this month. It will likely be made available primarily in pharmacies, and will only be made available to people under the age of 60. While the TGA has approved the vaccine for those 12 and over, vaccine expert advisory body ATAGI will also provide its advice on Moderna's use.

In debates about opening schools, we’re neglecting an important voice: our children’s

According to an article in The Conversation, European countries have been asked to focus on “ensuring the right of children to be involved in all decisions that affect them”, in a newly released report ahead of the school year in Europe. The report — from the “High-level meeting on schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic” held in July — states “very few governments” have made an effort to engage children in decision-making. The report was released by the European Office of the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). When comparing the NSW plan to international best practice, it doesn’t measure up. And Victoria’s movements don’t seem to be following a child-centred approach either. The call to include children as part of decision-making follows a similar one from the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in April last year.

A good induction is important for all new jobs. So why are teachers being left behind?

According to an article in The Conversation, Australian schools are struggling to recruit and keep teachers. Part of the reason for the teacher shortage is Australia’s lack of support for graduating teachers to successfully transition into the profession. According to the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, induction programs should be: school-based; delivered over two years; embedded in daily practice; practice-focused to further develop teaching skills. From doing research in this area, the authors know Australian schools have responded to this need and increasingly developed induction programs to support new teachers over the past decade. But it can take teachers several years to find long-term employment, which means many new teachers miss out on effective induction programs. Research from 2019 shows that, within the first two years of graduating, 60 per cent of new teachers are employed as insecure replacement teachers.

Father's Day report calls for equal parental leave as Australia lags behind

The ABC News reports that Australia has one of the least generous and most outdated parental leave systems in the developed world, but modest changes to allow both parents to access equal amounts of care could be a game changer, according to a new report. The federal government currently funds 18 weeks of leave for primary carers (almost exclusively mothers) and two weeks for "dads and partners", with the payments set at the minimum wage. However, the Grattan Institute's Dad Days report, released on Father's Day, proposes allowing parents six weeks of leave each, with another 12 weeks to be shared or taken by one parent. If both parents take a minimum of six weeks' leave, families will earn a bonus two weeks — taking their maximum family total to 26 weeks. Last year independent MP for Indi Helen Haines called on the government to take similar steps to the Grattan proposal, when an amendment making the parental leave scheme more flexible passed the House of Representatives. She was unsuccessful.

NSW’s anti-discrimination law is confusing and outdated. Why is it lagging behind the country on reform?

According to an article in The Conversation, an anti-discrimination law is, in effect, a code of conduct. An employer, an HR manager, a school principal, a shopkeeper, or hotelier needs to be able to pick up the act and get a good idea of what their obligations and duties are. NSW’s outdated Anti-Discrimination Act fails as a code of conduct. Passed in 1977, it is cumbersome, wordy, opaque, repetitive and confusing. The same laws in Queensland, the ACT, Victoria and Tasmania have wider scope, with fewer words in a more accessible form. Perhaps most significantly, the NSW Act remains simply a law that prohibits discrimination — it does not actively promote measures to secure equality, as laws in other jurisdictions do. Updating discrimination law is a perennial task, responding to social change. It is happening now in Western Australia and in Queensland. The Northern Territory’s review, meanwhile, is done and awaiting report. Clearly, there are contemporary models in Australia that show the way for NSW to follow.

Michaelia Cash rules out broad, “constitutionally barred” religious freedoms law

The Australian reports that Attorney-General Michaelia Cash is signalling new laws to fight discrimination against people of faith will not morph into a religious bill of rights, and warns some faith leaders their demands for wider protections for religious institutions are “constitutionally barred”. After revealing in June plans to bring the religious discrimination bill to a vote by Christmas, Senator Cash was inundated with calls from religious leaders to override state government bans on gay conversion therapy and to significantly broaden the bill’s definitions of faith-based institutions to cover a wider group of institutions than places of worship and schools. But the Attorney-General told The Australian last week that the bill would need to stick within the confines of traditional anti-discrimination legislation. Moderate Liberals have been vocal in opposing any bill that might reduce the rights of LGBTI Australians or roll back the gains made on same-sex marriage.

National eSmart Week: creating a positive, safe and supportive environment for all schools

medianet reports that. now in its seventh year, National eSmart Week – an initiative of national children’s charity, the Alannah & Madeline Foundation – creates awareness and highlights solutions and ideas for schools and libraries around issues of online safety, bullying prevention and wellbeing. Held this year from 6-12 September, alongside National Child Protection Week, National eSmart Week is a week when schools and public libraries around Australia come together to help raise awareness of cyber safety and encourage positive online experiences for our kids. More than 800 took part last year. A calendar of free and online live events run throughout the week, aimed at school and library staff, students and parents. It includes story time readings, interactive activities and specialist topics to promote positive connections. The Alannah & Madeline Foundation’s CEO, Sarah Davies, said this year’s theme is “Responsible Action”.

Grace Tame joins national campaign called Stop the Stigma

The Mercury reports that Grace Tame has joined forces with Australian Federal Police (AFP) in a campaign to remove the stigma of reporting child sexual abuse and return some power from perpetrators to victims. The Australian of the Year and the Minister for Home Affairs Karen Andrews will launch the campaign to spark a national conversation about child sexual abuse. The campaign comes as the number of charges laid by specialist child protection police more than doubled in 2020-21 and Kids Helpline reports a 40 per cent surge in reports of child sexual abuse in the first six months of this year. The Stop the Stigma partnership involves the AFP, Ms Tame, the Daniel Morcombe Foundation, Carly Ryan Foundation, Bravehearts, YourTown (Kid’s helpline) and Act for Kids. Ms Tame, who was recognised as Australian of the Year in January for her successful fight to overturn a Tasmanian law that gagged rape victims speaking publicly about their experiences, said every voice mattered.

Battle to make sex abuse documentary accessible in schools

The brisbane times reports that producers of a documentary aimed at educating young teens about the dangers of sexual predators online are battling to overturn a classification ruling that would severely limit the film’s potential reach into schools. The documentary, The Children In The Pictures, focuses on the work of specialist Queensland police unit Task Force Argos and recently established federal agency the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE). Despite the producers’ circumspect handling of the material, a four-person panel from the Federal Government’s Classification Board slapped an MA15+ ruling on the film on August 13, with the consumer advice of “strong themes and references to child sexual abuse”. Producers Simon Nasht and Tony Wright are appealing against the decision, backed by a number of experts in child psychology and education, who say a less restrictive M rating would better serve community interests. The film is slated to run on SBS towards the end of October.

INTERNATIONAL

UK's vaccine assessor opts against COVID jabs for children (United Kingdom)

The ABC News reports that the UK's vaccine advisors have declined to recommend the vaccination of healthy older children against COVID-19, saying the direct health benefits are "marginal". In its analysis of whether the rollout of coronavirus vaccines should be expanded to children aged between 12 and 15, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) concluded that the benefits are "marginally greater than the potential known harms". With just two per million of healthy children needing intensive care treatment for COVID-19, the JCVI said the "margin of benefit, based primarily on a health perspective, is considered too small to support advice on a universal program". In contrast, the rate among children with underlying health conditions is far higher, at over 100 per million. As a result, the JCVI did expand the group of older children with underlying health conditions who should be offered the vaccine.

Earthquake-resistant school built from recycled plastic in Indonesia (Indonesia)

The ABC News reports that three years after the Indonesian island of Lombok was devastated by earthquakes, a team of Australian and Indonesian charity organisations have set up Asia's first sustainable and earthquake-resistant school on the island. Infrastructure like businesses, homes and schools were wiped out, and as part of the rebuilding process, a new eco-friendly and earthquake-resistant school, SDN 4 Taman Sari, was constructed in June. The key to the school's sustainability and resilience to earthquakes is the use of “eco-blocks”, which are made from recycled plastic mixed with wood. The blocks are designed to avoid causing fatal injuries in an earthquake. Duncan Ward is the founder and CEO of Classroom of Hope, the Australian charity organisation that led the eco-block school project in Lombok. He started Classroom of Hope in 2012 with the mission of helping children living in poverty gain access to education. So far, the organisation has built more than 75 schools throughout Asia and Africa.

Parents of kids with long-COVID warn that children can develop severe symptoms (Canada)

The CBC reports that parents whose children have developed long-haul cases of COVID-19 are urging others not to underestimate the virus's impact on kids as they prepare for the return to class this week. They say that even seemingly mild cases of COVID can lead to prolonged illness in kids, despite the predominant message heard throughout the pandemic that children are only modestly affected. Dr Anu Wadhwa, a paediatric infectious diseases staff physician at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto who has been treating and studying children with long-COVID, says the virus can set kids back for months. A study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health in August tracked more than 1,700 children in the UK who tested positive for COVID-19. Nearly two per cent had symptoms that lasted more than 56 days. Though that may sound like a small percentage, Dr Wadhwa points out that if a lot of children are infected, a good number of them could be affected by long-COVID.