He's taken his daughter's out of school and given different responses for why that has happened. If his kids deserve to be kept safe so do teachers and kids.
^Not correct. His children are currently on school holidays. They, ordinarily attend school in New South Wales (NSW). He has stated publicly to the media (ABC television) last Wednesday after the State & Federal meeting that 'his daughters would be attending school - with face to face teaching in a physical classroom.
He also states that he'd not be asking any parents to send their children if he was not prepared to send his own.
It's worth noting.
All Australian States have primacy over education. The Premier of each and every State & Territory makes its own decision as to whether or not to keep schools open.
The Prime Minister has reiterated again & again that each Premier must decide what his or her own State will do. Not the Federal Government.
He's advised
primarily from the Chief Health Officer (so that's his medical source) and the other medical professionals who are advising the Federal & State governments re Covid19 and who have consistently said there is nothing to suggest that if a child is otherwise healthy, he or she cannot attend school. The statistical evidence for children under the age of 10 who present with serious complications to covid19 is almost non-existent. That has been the findings of WHO too.
As a result each
parent, school & state all get a say in whether or not they will send their children to school.
Apart from that the Prime Minister, has been saying repeatedly that no parent who is required to work & whose child needs an education should be locked out of the physical school system because of school closures.
Apart from that, he, the Prime Minister, is also on record as saying that essential workers, of all types, including nurses & FR"s cannot be expected to do home schooling and also expected to go to work. So a physical school presence should also be given to accommodate students of those parents. What else would you be doing with them?
rivate Schools did their emergency planning in January and tested devices in February, this has been in the Australian press. It's Public Schools that have been left without adequate resources or time to prepare for Covid19 which has meant a lot of teachers doing 16-18 hour days to get content online.
Private Schools had to start planning what they were going to do in early January because a huge amount of their students were due to arrive back in Australia from their overseas homes in late January to start school. Obviously the covid19 - Wuhan experience & the WHO had made it clear that this whole virus thing was going pear shaped. The private schools had to move quickly and they did.
They, the schools and the students, had been put on notice that those students who could get back to Australia, would be forced into quarantine so that they would not expose the rest of the school & etc to the virus.
The private schools decided to notify all of their overseas students about this mandatory quarantine. Therefore, as a result, a lot of those students declined to travel to Australia. Afterall, private schools do not have the capacity to keep quarantine literally several hundred students & provide medical care if any of them became unwell. Over the full spectrum of all of the private schools in Australia who educate students from overseas - that then expands to many, many thousands of young students.
Clearly, if a student cannot undergo & comply with quarantine requirements then he or she could not enter Australia. Of course these students also required adult supervision too. Who could do that? Not the schools. So these students have stayed overseas & are btw continuing their education.
The private education sector
expanded their already quite sophisticated online learning capacity quickly because of a couple of important factors. Firstly, it's a given that there would not even be one private school student attending an Australian private school that didn't have access to computers & the internet. Secondly, private schools lead the way with technology in education because to be blunt, they've got a lot of money & do a lot of their educating online anyway.
So no biggie then for private schools & their students. And btw Australian private schools students who resided in Australia continued to attend school till either the parents withdrew their children & opted for the online option, or the school voluntarily closed or the State requested they close.
Teachers who have preexisting conditions are being pressured to attend schools despite an agreement that this wouldn't happen.
^Again, not sure what your Queensland Premier would say about this ^^ but at least at a Federal level, and again in several press conferences (via ABC) I think you'll find the Chief Health Officer & the PM have consistently recommended that
anyone
who works in the education sector and who is a high risk individual, should not be teaching in physical teaching environments but that they could and should be utilised in facilitating the online education areas that the public schools have been expanding.
^What kind of pressure do you mean? Financial, emotional, mental?? That'd hit the press fairly loudly don't ya think?
It's Public Schools that have been left without adequate resources or time to prepare for Covid19 which has meant a lot of teachers doing 16-18 hour days to get content online.
^It is not the Federal Government's responsibility to micromanage schools & their individual resources & how they go about expanding their online teaching capacity.
Of course it would be really difficult to shut down the physical capacity of a school & send its education responsibilities online quickly so totally agree with you there. Like a lot of things to do with covid19 stuff has been hard. Nobody is getting an easy ride.
There's been abuse throughout social media and in Murdoch's media.
^Why is that special now? Social media is not something any level headed teacher would get mangled up about? There's plenty of training given to teachers about social media. Actually they have to be skilled enough to help their students navigate the evils of online social media. ugh.. Why is a global media empire got any relevance with teachers in Australia doing it tough? I don't understand?
how to many aggressive, abusive, demanding, & entitled parents who try to bully teachers.
^Same old, same old. :rolleyes: There were horrible parents when I was sending my kids to school and it's still going on now. Covid19 hasn't made that issue go away. Why would it? Teachers are pretty well equipped to deal with idiot parents. Try not to worry too much.
Media attacks on teachers are not unusual but it has reached a whole new level lately.
^Source?
In Australia some schools didn't even have enough soap for all the kids to wash their hands.
^So I've found media reports of about five schools who have complained either specifically or generally about lack of soap & water? for their students at schools particularly back in early to mid March.
Again, the education department of each State & Territory is responsible - not the Federal government & really? probably not even their own States. I mean who buys the soap? It has to be on a requisition form somewhere - probably the secretary who answers the phones & orders the toilet paper too? There's no shortage of soap - so a quick trip to the shop would fix that.
It's most concerning how Australian teachers are being treated, targeted and left in high risk situations at the moment, particularly when there's a whole cohort of 60 plus teachers who are on the verge in my local area.
^I think you're over-stating things. I get you're concerned but my friends who are senior teachers and principals think they are doing ok and though they all have issues or some sort or another - there's nothing that they are particularly despairing about. It's very difficult for
everyone & but they're willing to work through all of the issues and make the best of it & undoubtedly have the children front & centre for this incredibly difficult year of education.
Victoria has done partial shut down which at least has given those teachers who need to quarantine, like those who have had transplants etc to work from home.
^And all of the other schools in Australia have been afforded the same policy. It's not just Victoria. If you find your own 'cohort' isn't being given the opportunity - do something about it.
Teachers are remarkable & resourceful people so Covid19 will not get them down. :)
