Parents speak out against rushed re-opening of schools in Australia

Oceania/ Australia/ Source; www.wsws.org.

 

Despite widespread concerns among parents and teachers, and repeated COVID-19 outbreaks in schools, the “national cabinet” formed by the Australian federal, state and territory governments has pushed most students back into face-to-face classes.

As is occurring internationally, these governments—Liberal-National and Labor alike—have rushed to reopen schools in order to fully open up the economy for corporate profit, placing the health and lives of teachers, parents and students at risk.

The national cabinet claims that social distancing is not necessary in schools and students are “low” risk of infection, despite admitting that reopening schools could result in further coronavirus clusters.

Teacher trade unions have backed and welcomed the return to classrooms, saying it will “bring stability” to teachers, principals and education support staff. The complicity of the unions has left parents to express their concerns through social media, establishing Facebook pages and petitions.

Under conditions where widespread testing is not being conducted, the governments and unions do not know the level of community infection but that has not prevented them from railroading students and teachers back into classes.

Last week in Britain, the Conservative government of Boris Johnson was forced to drop its plans to have all primary children back in school within the next four weeks. The temporary retreat is the result of millions of parents and educators opposing the government, in defiance of the education trade unions.

The reopening of schools in the two most populous Australian states, New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, has already resulted in multiple primary and secondary students testing positive to COVID-19, forcing temporary school closures.

Today, a third Victoria primary school in two days closed. Strathmore Primary School, in Melbourne’s inner-north, was shut for cleaning and contact tracing after a student became the fifth in the state to test positive for the coronavirus this week.

Yesterday, the Andrews state Labor government announced two such closures. Pakenham Springs primary school in Melbourne’s southeast, reported two students from the same family testing positive, so it would shut for 24 hours. St Dominic’s, a Roman Catholic school at Broadmeadows, in the city’s north said it would close for three days and all students who attended on June 2-3 should be tested for COVID-19.

All these schools are in working-class suburbs, as was an earlier cluster of at least 13 cases in Keilor Downs, which triggered the temporary closure of four schools, with more than 100 students and teachers self-isolating.

During past three weeks in NSW, four Sydney schools—Waverley College, Moriah College, Rose Bay primary school and Laguna Street primary school—have been forced to close for cleaning.

The Laguna Street school, in Sydney’s southern suburbs, closed last weekend for 10 days. A staff member had tested positive after being in contact with the majority of school members while infectious. This now means the self-isolation of over 450 students and staff for the next two weeks as well as the consequential impact on all their families.

Last month, Ash Parmar, a parent and president of the Parents and Citizens Committee (P&C) at a primary school in western Sydney, initiated a petition, signed by nearly 10,000 people, demanding that children not be treated as “guinea pigs” for dangerous government policies. Parents, he said, should be able to exercise their rights to protect their children, and called on the state government to keep providing an online learning platform for children not attending face-to-face classes.

One of the signatories explained: “If social distancing is proven to reduce the spreading of virus, then why does the same rule not apply to school classrooms? As if the virus will bypass school children and only target adults, which is obviously not the case. And if social distancing cannot be maintained in the classroom, then the NSW government should think again about their decision to force parents to send their children to school!”

The NSW government’s response has been both threatening and dismissive. Premier Gladys Berejiklian said: “Their children will be marked as absent.” Education Minister Sarah Mitchell insisted that “the pandemic would not be considered an adequate excuse to keep children at home.”

Implicit in their threat that “unexplained absences” of more than three days without a doctor’s certificate would be “followed up,” while not openly stated, was that truancy measures and fines could result.

In response, the petition organisers stated: “We are not asking anyone to change any policy. You are the one who is changing policies on the fly. The policy was that students at home can study through the e-learning platform. We just want that to stay on for a few weeks more till we get through this experiment. Absence codes used were always at the Principal’s discretion, leave it there.”

Since Berejiklian’s statement, parents have posted incidences where student absences were marked as unjustified, even when a doctor’s certificate was provided. Others wrote of the lack of consistency across schools, saying the policy seemed to differ from principal to principal. One parent who has two children at different schools wrote: “One was very understanding, the other not so much. We have a couple of weeks on the doctor’s certificate but not sure how things will go after that.”

Another parent commented: “The NSW premier threatened us if kids are off for 3 days. My kids will be off for 4 days as a protest. I hope other parents do the same, power in numbers. Hopefully the NSW premier goes back to the phased plan, or better yet, just opens a new school online for remote learning for parents that want and can keep kids at home and thereby helping to keep class sizes down.”

The intransigence of the governments, combined with the collaboration of the education unions, has forced parents, like teachers, to seek individual forms of action to protect their children.

Another teacher/parent voiced general distrust of the government’s motivations: “I don’t have faith in the politicians who have made this decision. I don’t have confidence that the school I work in or the other school I send my children to, will be safe for those who attend. I’ve seen the ‘cleaning’ and ‘contact tracing’ first hand. It’s a joke and this decision is driven by politics and greed, not public safety.”

The Committee for Public Education (CFPE) published a statement on May 28 opposing the rushed reopening of school systems in the states and territories where there is community transmission of COVID-19—currently NSW and Victoria. The statement called for the formation of safety action committees to protect the safety and wellbeing of students and staff threatened by the coronavirus pandemic.

This remains an urgent requirement. Rather than turning to individual courses of action to protect children, we urge parents to unite with teachers and other community members to form action committees within every school, independent of the unions and employers, with the aim of intervening to protect school communities.

We urge all parents and educators looking to develop this discussion to contact the CFPE.

Source of the news: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/06/16/teac-j16.html

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England: Many parents face disappointment over primary school places

England/ 16.04.2018/ From: www.theguardian.com.

Parents in England will find out on Monday whether their child got into their top choice of primary school to begin reception class in September, with many likely to face disappointment owing to the pressure on places in some areas of the country.

On what has become known as national offer day for primary schools, about half a million families will receive emails during the course of the day and letters later in the week confirming whether they have been offered a place at their first-choice school.

Despite fewer applications this year as a population bulge moves into secondary schools, thousands of families are still likely to miss out on their top choice, particularly in London, where just 86% got into their first preference last year, with that figure dropping to 68% in Kensington and Chelsea.

Early data suggested a slight improvement on last year’s figures in some areas. In York, for example, 94.2% of children were awarded places in their first-preference school this year – up from 92.9% last year – and just 11 children failed to secure a place at one of their preferred schools, down from 25 last year.

Last year, 97.2% of four-year-olds in England were offered a place at one of their top three primary schools. Many parents go on to lodge appeals in a last-ditch attempt to secure a place at their first choice of school.

According to the Good Schools Guide, the success rate of primary school appeals varies widely. In 2016-17, a third of appeals in the north-east went in the child’s favour, while the success rate was just 7% in London.

Elizabeth Coatman, the guide’s state education consultant, said: “Children are still being offered places which their parents consider to be inappropriate. Appealing is an option, but with huge regional disparities in the success rates, you shouldn’t count on it going your way.

“However unfair it may feel, the length of your school run, having siblings at other schools, super-sized classes and poor Ofsted reports are unlikely to be successful grounds for appeal.”

Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said “In an increasingly fragmented school system, we lack a coordinated approach to place planning. The government’s own figures show that an extra 654,000 school places will be needed in England by 2026 to meet the 9% rise in pupil population.

“Until the government creates a national strategy to guarantee there are enough school places for every child in England, the annual anxious wait for families will continue.”

From: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/apr/16/many-parents-face-disappointment-over-primary-school-places

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Kenia: Parents demand more roles in new 2-6-3-3 education system

Kenia / 25 de octubre de 2017 / Por: SAMWEL OWINO / Fuente: http://www.nation.co.ke

Parents are now demanding more roles in shaping their children’s education under the new curriculum saying their role under the current 8-4-4 system is minimal.

Kenya National Parents Association chairman Nicholas Maiyo on Monday said the new curriculum set to be rolled out in two months should provide a clear role for parents.

ROLES

Speaking during a two-day stakeholders workshop on ‘Parental empowerment and engagement, ‘ at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), Mr Maiyo said parents’ role should not be reduced to just sending their children to school.

During the workshop, it emerged that parents have abdicated their roles to teachers, with some expressing disappointment whenever children stayed home for long, during holidays.

«Parents can do more than just sending their children to school and leaving the rest to teachers,” Mr Maiyo said.

UPBRINGING

Cyril Oyugi, the KICD Director-Research, Monitoring and Evaluation, said under the new guidelines, the role of bringing up a child will no longer be left only to teachers as has been the case.

«Parents will no longer look upon teachers to single-handedly watch over their children while at school and view them as a bother when they return home,» Mr Oyugi said.

Mr Oyugi said the 2-6-3-3 system of education focuses on bringing up children who are not only bright in class but have the right values to enable them become responsible citizens.

KICD Chief Executive Officer Dr Julius Jwan said the close collaboration among parents, learners and teachers being advanced by the proposed curriculum, guarantees quality education.

PARENTING

Dr Stanley Mukolwe, an expert in Parenting, who delivered the key note address on ‘Parenting in the 21st century,’ said parents and teachers must work together to develop students’ character and competence.

«A parent with one child fails to build his character and expects a teacher with an audience of 40 learners to do a miracle,» said Dr Mukolwe, who is the Director, Family Life Ministry Navigators Africa.

He explained that some children suffer from low esteem because their parents never appreciate what they do.

«Even if a child comes home with a 100 per cent, a parent still asks how many others had a similar mark. This affects the child,» Dr Mukolwe said.

RELEGATE

He faulted some parents for relegating their parenting roles to house helps, including attending crucial school meetings, in the guise that they are busy.

«A child is spending two tired hours with a parent and 12 wakeful hours with the house helps. Ideally, they are the ones influencing the children’s behaviour,» Dr Mukolwe said.

The event that brought together parents, educationists, curriculum developers, religious groups, psychologists and Ministry of Education officials was organised to develop guidelines that will improve participation of parents in their children’s school lives.

Students are set to be at home for more than two months, for December holiday, after Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i announced that schools will close on October 24 to pave way for the repeat presidential election scheduled for Thursday. Schools will open on January 2.

Fuente noticia: http://www.nation.co.ke/news/education/parents-role-new-education-system/2643604-4151690-12nge0x/index.html

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Sudáfrica: Communities, parents have to become part of school bullying solution – education department

Durban / 18 de octubre de 2017 / Fuente: http://www.news24.com/

The Department of Education in KwaZulu-Natal has called on parents, communities and all other stakeholders to come together to combat school bullying.

«We are very much disturbed by this kind of continued violence that we see happening in our schools. As the department of education, it is not a matter we can address alone,» department spokesperson Muzi Mahlambi told News24 on Wednesday.

«We need [the] support of parents and communities. This has to be multi-pronged.»

Mahlambi made the statement following a video that emerged online this week, showing a street brawl between two groups of boys allegedly from Palmview and Woodview Secondary Schools in Phoenix, Durban.

The video gained traction on multiple social media platforms, with many expressing disgust at the savagery and violence displayed by the youngsters.

It is not clear when the brawl took place.

In the video, two boys begin kicking and punching another boy in the head. Pupils can be heard jeering in the background as the youngsters land devastating blows to the back of the boy’s head.

After he falls to the ground, the duo increase their ferocity and focus their attack on the boy’s head, repeatedly punching him while pulling his shirt.

Two more youngsters join in kicking the boy as he lies on the ground clutching his head. The assault halts after a car stops and a man exits the vehicle to break up the fight.

Mahlambi said that the department was aware of the incident and would be investigating the matter.

Fear escalation

He, however, urged the community and parents to become more active in curbing bullying at schools.

«As you can see, you say it happened outside school. The boys were, however, in full school uniform. We obviously cannot police the youngsters all the time. This is why we are calling on the community to come forward and also help.»

Mahlambi said the department was working with police. He said he feared bullying could escalate.

«This sometimes starts small but grows. With boys involved, we find they always want to settle a score. Sometimes they can bring weapons like guns and knives. We must, as communities, start asking: Why are they like this and where do they get weapons from?»

Mahlambi said the department had also witnessed situations where siblings and families become involved in school bullying fights.

«It then begins to breed serious problems and create[s] faction fighting in the area.»

He urged parents to take any form of bullying seriously.

«Do not take small issues for granted. Don’t tell your boys to ‘be a man’. Take it seriously as parents. Even if someone takes your child’s sandwich, report that. We do not want these situations to escalate. We need to find solutions together.»

Mahlambi said the department was prioritising the incident and would soon take action against the perpetrators in the video.

«We will take disciplinary actions. We want to set an example here. We will also take actions against [the] boys shouting and filming. They are equally guilty.»

He added: «It must be noted, these incidents don’t just emanate from school, but also from home.»

Fuente noticia: http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/communities-parents-have-to-become-part-of-school-bullying-solution-education-department-20171018

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Singapur: Asian parents among top spenders on education

Singapur / 07 de octubre de 2017 / Por: JUSTINA LEE / Fuente: https://asia.nikkei.com/

Hong Kong families spend triple global average, ahead of Singapore, Taiwan

Asian parents are investing heavily in education to give their children better career opportunities in an increasingly competitive job market, according to an HSBC report.

The report was based on a survey of over 8,400 parents in 15 countries around the world, and covered education spending from primary school to university, including tuition fees and accommodation.

Hong Kong took the top spot. Parents there spend an average of $132,100 per child — nearly three times the global figure of about $44,200. Singapore and Taiwan followed with about $70,900 and $56,400 respectively.

Parents in China were the best prepared financially among those surveyed. Over half fund their children’s education from general savings, insurance, or investments, while over two-fifths have a specific education savings plan.

Asian parents place a strong emphasis on paying for quality education, as they see education as a way to ensure their children’s success in life and give them a competitive advantage over their peers in the job market.

In Hong Kong and Singapore particularly, parents spend heavily on private tuition in subjects they feel their children need help. According to local media reports, Singapore’s private tuition industry is worth more than a billion Singapore dollars ($732 million) annually.

Charlie Nunn, HSBC’s group head of wealth management, said a child’s education is likely at times to cost more than mortgage payments or rent and household bills in nine of the 15 countries surveyed, but did not go into details about the survey’s respondents. «To limit the strain that children’s education can have on family finances, it’s important to plan and save ahead,» he said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fuente noticia: https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/Economy/Asian-parents-among-top-spenders-on-education

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