Educate Yourself, Dan?
“Remote learning is setting students back, the Premier’s stubbornness is damaging their education, their mental health and their parents’ productivity, and the science does not support it. The Federal Government and other states have recognised this – why has Daniel Andrews not? Is it political posturing, or weakness in the face of the teacher Unions?”
Western Victoria Region MP Bev McArthur has called for all Victorian schools to reopen in the light of mounting scientific evidence of the low risk posed, the continued difficulties experienced by parents now home-educating their children while endeavouring to hold down a job in this fragile economic environment, and damning new reports on the harmful social and educational consequences isolated children face.
In this week alone, five reports from established education research bodies have shown that long-term online learning severely disadvantages students, particularly vulnerable children and those in early-years education.[i]
Mrs McArthur said: “I’ve been critical in recent weeks about the confusion parents have faced due to mixed messages on school opening, but it’s now clear that the fundamental premise of home-schooling children for all students in Victoria is unnecessary, flawed, and unsustainable.”
“The Premier needs to come out straight away and make clear that children in Victoria will be going back to school in Term 2. Students should be educated in school, it’s quite apparent that it is unnecessary to keep them away, and worse still it’s damaging their futures. To say nothing of the stress it is imposing on many working parents.“
”As the Prime Minister has reiterated ‘all workers are essential’ and all parents who seek education in a classroom for their children should now have access to it. It should be a decision for parents, not Daniel Andrews. If it is good enough for health, supermarket, transport and Bunnings workers to have to provide a service, it’s surely only fair for teachers whose health is not compromised, to teach children at school.”
“The University of Tasmania’s Peter Underwood Centre has stated there is an ‘urgent need’ to get students back into schools, with 46% ‘at risk of having their learning and wellbeing significantly compromised by not being at school’. That is a staggering finding, and one we cannot ignore.[ii]
The Centre for International Research on Education Systems report found that vulnerable students will suffer, with disadvantaged Year 5 students losing the equivalent of 6.1 weeks of learning in reading and 10.7 weeks in numeracy, if schools failed to reopen this year. [iii]
Mrs McArthur said: “Looking at the evidence, it’s no surprise that schools are open in South Australia and the Northern Territory, returning in Western Australia this week, and reopening in stages in New South Wales as the term begins. Victoria is an outlier, and it’s time the Premier’s posturing was called out.”
“He is defying the Prime Minister, the Federal Education Minister, the Australian Chief Medical Officer, and the AHPPC advice which has guided national decisions at every stage of this crisis.”[iv]
“Daniel Andrews should educate himself on this – the consensus is now deafening. He needs to address parents’ legitimate concern that it’s teacher unions, not scientific advisors, who are dictating his response.”
Mrs McArthur highlighted the findings of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, which investigated the spread of the coronavirus in classrooms, and found limited transmissibility between children, and between teachers and children.[v]
She noted overseas experience which backs this up, as well as the recent intervention by three leading experts, University of Sydney infectious diseases expert and professor of paediatrics Robert Booy, ANU Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake, and Professor Allen Cheng, Director of infection prevention and healthcare epidemiology at Alfred Health.[vi]
“It’s clear that the science does not support school closures in Victoria, and the last few weeks have shown that it doesn’t work for parents either. They cannot be expected to be childminders and tutors while working full-time, and nor should their employers be expected to pay salaries to staff who are unable to give 100% of their time to the job they are employed in.”
"The situation is hardest for the single parents, and for vulnerable children and children with disabilities, some living with parents who themselves may have less formal education and find it harder to support them. Those financially worse-off may not have the available technology, and regional families too can suffer from our often inadequate communications infrastructure.
Mrs McArthur concluded:
“The current policy is unsustainable. It’s impossible for parents, damaging for students, and unsupported by the science.”
“We can and must do better, and schools are well able to adopt sensible safeguards to make reopening work. Staggering drop-offs and pick-ups, enabling regular hand and surface sanitising, ensuring physical separation in classrooms, and suspending contact sports can all be easily done. Staff in at-risk categories can work from home. Parents will then have the choice to send their children to school.”
“This seems so obvious to me. If the schools can be open, they should be open."
“Why is it that we are so far behind the curve on this? Could it be the Andrews’ Government’s craven submission to the teacher unions? If so, it’s an appalling indictment of this Labor Government’s priorities – when it comes down to it they are just not strong enough to stand up to the unions even when our economy and children’s future depends on it.”
28 April 2020