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The case for Australia to step up in Southeast Asia

The case for Australia to step up in Southeast Asia

A policy brief by Hervé Lemahieu, Director of the International Economy Program at the Lowy Institute, published by The Brookings Institution.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Australia shares significant overlap of geographically-derived interests with the emerging middle powers of Southeast Asia. The resilience of developing Southeast Asia functions as the protective membrane for Australia’s own prosperity and security.

Navigating a path through U.S.-China competition and forging constructive ties with its Southeast Asian neighbors are among Australia’s most pressing foreign policy priorities. And yet, misaligned expectations have complicated the potential for a broad-based consensus needed to sustain Australia’s Indo-Pacific strategy in the region. This is often driven in both directions by a failure to understand, or simply the urge to gloss over, fundamental differences in identities, temperaments, priorities, and alignments between Australia and its Southeast Asian counterparts. Such differences will require concerted efforts to manage.

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Canberra should prioritize an outward-looking and ambitious Indo-Pacific strategy rather than risk withdrawing into a pessimistic and defensive regional posture. Australia’s strategic circumstances, while critical, are also dynamic. They create an opportunity to rethink, reorder, and step-up regional diplomacy. Australia will have to re-engage the middle powers of Southeast Asia on their own terms, as well as look for ways to bridge strategic priorities in its two closest geographic theaters.

This can be done by committing to a post-COVID-19 recovery strategy for Southeast Asia in addition to aid efforts already underway in the South Pacific. Succeeding in its minilateral and multilateral ventures will also require a clearer differentiation in Australia’s Indo-Pacific objectives: building a strategic and military counterweight to China through strategic partnerships, on one hand, and cooperating with a more diverse set of middle powers in shoring up the rules-based regional order, on the other.

Australia should continue to support Southeast Asian countries in building regional balance in the ways they do best. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) emerging economic architecture may well prove to be the most consequential multilateral hedge against Beijing’s asymmetric economic clout. Canberra should also facilitate and deepen cross-regional linkages between Southeast Asia and the Pacific. This will help to diversify the international relations of Pacific island nations and minimize the risk that they become overly dependent on China.

Download the full policy brief from the Brookings website, or via the button above.

Fuente de la Información: https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/case-australia-step-southeast-asia

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Australia’s Bushfires Burned an Area Twice the Size of Florida. Climate Change Means That’s Just the Beginning, a New Report Warns

Australia’s Bushfires Burned an Area Twice the Size of Florida. Climate Change Means That’s Just the Beginning, a New Report Warns

The bushfires that scorched vast tracts of Australia in late 2019 and early 2020 were just a glimpse of what’s to come as global temperatures rise, a landmark report made public on Friday warned.

The Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements, which was commissioned by the Australian government, says that global warming over the next 20 to 30 years is inevitable, and Australia must adapt to further changes to the climate.

“Australia will have more hot days and fewer cool days. Sea levels are also projected to continue to rise,” the inquiry, led by a former chief of the Australian Defense Force, a former federal court judge and a climate policy expert, found“Tropical cyclones are projected to decrease in number, but increase in intensity. Floods and bushfires are expected to become more frequent and more intense.”

Climate activists say they are hopeful the report will help break the country’s deadlock on climate reform—and spur a government that had been largely ambivalent on the issue into action.

“Climate change is real, climate change is affecting all of us and it’s time for urgent action,” says Greg Mullins, the former fire chief of New South Wales. “It’s time for the government to listen.”

Although fires are an annual occurrence on the continent, last season’s apocalyptic blazes, known as the “Black Summer” fires, burned up to 83 million acres, an area twice the size of Florida. The report’s findings come as fires rage on America’s West Coast. More than 90,000 people were urged this week to flee their California homes as Santa Ana winds fueled fires. Already, it has been a record-breaking fire season in the U.S., with wildfires tearing across parts of California, Oregon and Washington.

Australia’s last fire season was one of the worst on record, too. More than 30 people died in the blazes, including at least nine firefighters. More than 400 people may have been killed by smoke pollution from the fires, according to a study published in the Medical Journal of Australia. More than 3,000 homes and many other buildings were destroyed, and one researcher, in a widely shared figure, projected that as many as 480 million animals have been killed or would die in the state of New South Wales—where Sydney is located—alone.

The authors did not urge specific action to reduce Australia’s green house gas emissions—most of the report’s 80 recommendations revolved around practical ways to improve Australia’s natural disaster response. Mullins, who is also a councillor at the non-profit Climate Council, says the report makes a stronger statement on climate change than he expected. “It calls for mitigation across all sectors,” says Mullins. “I take that as code for the government must be serious with your policies on climate change.”

A quick search shows the phrase “climate” used 355 times in the 594 page document (in 67 of those instances the phrase “climate change” was used.)

Fuente de la Información: https://time.com/5904762/australia-bushfires-climate-change-report/

 

 

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Australia – Quaden Bayles: Bullied Australian boy sues columnist over ‘scam’ suggestion

Quaden Bayles: Bullied Australian boy sues columnist over ‘scam’ suggestion

An Australian boy who was bullied for his dwarfism has launched legal action against a newspaper columnist after she alleged he had faked his distress in a video which went viral.

Quaden Bayles drew global support earlier this year, including from high-profile entertainers and sportspeople.

His mother, Yarraka Bayles, said she had posted the clip to raise awareness.

But some – such as Australian columnist Miranda Devine – suggested it was a «scam» over subsequent donations.

Devine and her employer, News Corp Australia, are yet to file a legal defence to the legal action, local media reported.

An online campaign was set up by a US comedian Brad Williams – who had the same dwarfism condition of Achondroplasia – to send Quaden on a trip to Disneyland.

It attracted celebrity support and raised more than A$300,000 (£165,000; $216,000) in just a few days.

The Bayles later pledged to give all the money to charity, but at the peak of the campaign they were attacked by trolls who claimed the family had staged the incident.

What were Devine’s comments?

Devine – a high-profile columnist for Sydney’s Daily Telegraph – retweeted one conspiracy theory to her 70,000 followers.

She added a comment: «That’s really rotten if this was a scam. Hurts genuine bullying victims. Over to @dailytelegraph.»

She also tweeted that she had shared her initial retweet of the theory with «caution».

But in subsequent tweets she also alleged that Quaden’s mother had been «coaching the kid to say those things that no nine-year-old would say».

In the confronting six-minute video that originally went viral, Quaden’s mother describes the relentless bullying experienced by her son every day. The family, who are Aboriginal Australian, live in Queensland.

It attracted celebrity support and raised more than A$300,000 (£165,000; $216,000) in just a few days.

The Bayles later pledged to give all the money to charity, but at the peak of the campaign they were attacked by trolls who claimed the family had staged the incident.

What were Devine’s comments?

Devine – a high-profile columnist for Sydney’s Daily Telegraph – retweeted one conspiracy theory to her 70,000 followers.

She added a comment: «That’s really rotten if this was a scam. Hurts genuine bullying victims. Over to @dailytelegraph.»

She also tweeted that she had shared her initial retweet of the theory with «caution».

But in subsequent tweets she also alleged that Quaden’s mother had been «coaching the kid to say those things that no nine-year-old would say».

In the confronting six-minute video that originally went viral, Quaden’s mother describes the relentless bullying experienced by her son every day. The family, who are Aboriginal Australian, live in Queensland.

Quaden crying in his car seat

The family filed a defamation lawsuit against Devine and her employer, News Corp Australia, last Friday, local media reported.

News Corp Australia previously declined to apologise to the family, saying in March that it bore no responsibility for Devine’s tweets as it was «self-evidently a personal account».

Fuente de la Información: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-53673934

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Australia: Informe sindical revela la brecha digital entre estudiantes de las escuelas públicas

Oceania/Australia/PrensaIE

El sindicato Australian Education Union ha publicado un informe que revela una brecha digital significativa durante la pandemia de la COVID-19 y la falta de inclusión digital que afecta a estudiantes de las escuelas públicas.

El sindicato Australian Education Union ha publicado un informe que revela una brecha digital significativa durante la pandemia de la COVID-19 y la falta de inclusión digital que afecta a estudiantes de las escuelas públicas.

Un informe independiente encargado por el sindicato Australian Education Union (AEU) ha revelado la persistente brecha en cuanto a acceso, asequibilidad y competencias que afecta desde hace años a buen número de estudiantes de escuelas públicas provenientes de entornos desfavorecidos.
El informe Addressing digital inclusion for all public-school students (Abordar la inclusión digital para todo el alumnado de escuelas públicas), de la investigadora independiente especializada en educación Barbara Preston, llama la atención sobre cómo esta brecha se suma a otros factores que obstaculizan la inclusión. Entre dichos factores podemos citar bajos ingresos, residir en áreas remotas, dominio del inglés, discapacidades y una vivienda insegura o inadecuada.
El recurso a la enseñanza y el aprendizaje a distancia a causa de la COVID-19 puso de relieve la falta de inclusión digital para gran número de estudiantes, pero este informe viene a demostrar que en realidad se trata de un problema de larga data que, desde hace años, está siendo ignorado sistemáticamente por el Gobierno de coalición.
125 000 estudiantes en escuelas públicas sin acceso a Internet
Según el informe, cerca de 125 000 estudiantes en escuelas públicas no disponen de acceso a Internet.
El informe de Preston concluye además que:
  • El nueve por ciento de estudiantes procedentes de familias con bajos ingresos no disponen de acceso a Internet en casa, frente a apenas el uno por ciento en el caso de estudiantes con altos ingresos familiares.
  • Estudiantes de escuelas públicas tienen 2,5 veces más probabilidades que quienes acuden a escuelas privadas o católicas de no disponer de acceso a Internet en casa.
  • Estudiantes de escuelas públicas que viven en áreas remotas tienen muchas más probabilidades de no disponer de Internet en casa —prácticamente un tercio de los y las más de 20 000 estudiantes que viven en áreas muy remotas no tenían acceso a Internet—. En el caso de aborígenes e isleños del estrecho de Torres, la probabilidad de no tener Internet en casa es aún mayor —21 por ciento frente al 5 por ciento para el conjunto del alumnado en escuelas públicas—.
  • Unos bajos ingresos familiares están asociados a numerosos factores que hacen que estudiar en casa resulte más difícil, incluyendo la falta de acceso a Internet y de material y programas informáticos adecuados; menor nivel de educación de los progenitores para poder ayudar con el trabajo escolar; viviendas inseguras o hacinadas donde no cuentan con un lugar fijo donde estudiar sin perturbaciones, y el estrés psicológico que pesa sobre los miembros del entorno familiar a causa de las dificultades financieras.
AEU: Prueba irrefutable del fracaso del Gobierno federal
El informe constituye “una prueba irrefutable del fracaso del Gobierno federal a la hora de garantizar que todo el alumnado tenga acceso a las herramientas y a los recursos digitales necesarios para su educación”, según AEU.
El sindicato insta al Gobierno federal a efectuar, con prioridad inmediata, una auditoría de equidad digital para determinar el impacto que tiene sobre el alumnado la falta de acceso a internet y a recursos digitales. A continuación, debería establecerse un plan integral, desarrollado tras consultar con la profesión docente y dotado con los recursos pertinentes, para superar de manera definitiva las lagunas en materia de inclusión digital.
El informe independiente de AEU está disponible aquí (en inglés)
Fuente: https://www.ei-ie.org/spa/detail/16872/australia-informe-sindical-revela-la-brecha-digital-entre-estudiantes-de-las-escuelas-p%C3%BAblicas
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Oceanía: Jóvenes esperan la apertura de fronteras para vivir en Australia y Nueva Zelanda, según agencias educativas

Jóvenes esperan la apertura de fronteras para vivir en Australia y Nueva Zelanda, según agencias educativas

Jóvenes esperan la apertura de fronteras para vivir en Australia y Nueva Zelanda, según agencias educativas.

Por la pandemia, miles de jóvenes debieron posponer sus viajes de estudio a Australia y Nueva Zelanda. Los gobiernos de ambos países consideran que el regreso de estudiantes internacionales es una prioridad. En este caso, Australia comunicó el pasado 20 de julio la reactivación de los visados de estudiante. Las agencias educativas están cumpliendo un rol clave ayudando a los estudiantes en esta situación.

Miles de estudiantes internacionales aguardan ansiosos la apertura de las fronteras de Australia y Nueva Zelanda. En marzo, ambos países decidieron prohibir el ingreso de ciudadanos extranjeros debido a la pandemia de COVID-19, por lo que jóvenes de todo el mundo se vieron obligados a posponer sus viajes de estudio. En 2019 y solo considerando la educación superior, estos dos países recibieron a cerca de 500 mil estudiantes internacionales. La cifra supera el millón si se incluyen otros tipos de cursos.

Australia y Nueva Zelanda, son dos de los destinos más populares entre los estudiantes internacionales junto con Canadá, que recientemente está subiendo mucho. Estos destinos son elegidos tanto por la calidad y el prestigio de sus instituciones, como por las facilidades que tienen para trabajar mientras estudian. Por supuesto, en 2020 la crisis sanitaria golpeó de lleno al sector. De todas maneras, los gobiernos de Australia y Nueva Zelanda consideran que el tema es una prioridad y esperan recibir estudiantes lo más pronto posible.

Australia evalúa opciones

Australia es uno de los países más demandados para estudiar y trabajar. Cada año, recibe unos 950.000 estudiantes de todo el mundo, quienes eligen ese país para realizar estudios universitarios, intercambios, cursos vocacionales y cursos de inglés. Según los datos oficiales del Gobierno australiano, durante 2019 el sector de la educación internacional aportó 39 mil millones de dólares a la economía de ese país. Es un ingreso fundamental para que las escuelas y universidades de ese país puedan sostener la calidad de sus cursos.

Por lo tanto, el Gobierno Australiano sigue de cerca este tema y, si bien todavía no dio una fecha para abrir las fronteras, considera el regreso de los estudiantes internacionales como una prioridad. Es por ello que a fecha 20 de julio, el Ministro de Educación compareció confirmando la reactivación de los visados de estudiante. Si bien aún no establecieron fechas para poder entrar en el país Dan Tehan, adelantó que se deben cumplir dos condiciones antes de que los estudiantes internacionales puedan regresar a Australia.

Si bien aún no establecieron fechas para poder entrar en el país Dan Tehan, adelantó que se deben cumplir dos condiciones antes de que los estudiantes internacionales puedan regresar a Australia. “En primer lugar, el estado en cuestión debe haber abierto sus fronteras para vuelos domésticos. Además, los campus universitarios deben estar dando clases a los estudiantes australianos e internacionales que ya estén en el país”, afirmó

La situación en Nueva Zelanda En tanto, el regreso de los estudiantes internacionales es un tema que divide aguas en Nueva Zelanda y es motivo de fuertes discusiones políticas. El ministro de Finanzas, Grant Robertson, aseguró que la capacidad de las instalaciones para realizar cuarentenas ya está al límite debido a los neozelandeses que regresan al país. Según declaró el funcionario en una entrevista, el regreso de los estudiantes internacionales a Nueva Zelanda “llevará tiempo”.

El país kiwi enfrenta una situación económica compleja a raíz de la pandemia. El cierre de sus fronteras cortó el flujo de turistas, que el año pasado fue el mayor generador de divisas del país: unos NZ$16 mil millones (o USD 10 mil millones). Pese a la apremiante contexto económico, Robertson afirmó que es poco probable volver a poner en marcha al sector de la educación internacional (de unos NZ$ 5 mil millones) este año. Sin embargo, no todos opinan lo mismo. El opositor Partido Nacional considera que los estudiantes internacional deben volver a Nueva Zelanda en el Segundo Semestre del año. Según plantean, los estudiantes sólo deberían ser sometidos a un test al ingresar al país y cumplir cuarentena de 14 días.

“Si no se mueve rápidamente, Nueva Zelanda corre el riesgo de perder estudiantes internacionales para la segunda mitad de 2020, lo que le costará a la economía cientos de millones de dólares”, aseguró la vicepresidenta del Partido Nacional, Nikki Kaye. Por su parte, Grant Guilford, el vicerrector de Universidad Victoria en Wellington, instó a que los vuelos de estudiantes comiencen a llegar a más tardar en noviembre. “[Los estudiantes internacionales] contribuyen a la capacidad de las Universidades de destacarse a nivel mundial», sostuvo Guilford y agregó que también ayudan a competir con otros, ya que son los «talentos» que requiere la economía del conocimiento.

Codo a codo en tiempos de crisis

En este panorama de incertidumbre, los estudiantes internacionales no están solos. Las agencias educativas trabajan día y noche para resolver dudas y asistirlos en este momento. Entre otras cuestiones, ayudan a los estudiantes a modificar sin cargo las fechas de sus cursos, los seguros médicos y las aplicaciones de visados.

Además, algunas agencias habilitaron líneas de contacto directo para resolver las dudas de todas las personas en origen y en destino que se encontraron en medio de esta situación. Tal es el caso de GrowPro Experience, una empresa española con más de 200 experiencias educativas, ayuda cada año a más de 2.000 personas a cumplir el sueño de viajar para estudiar a Australia y Nueva Zelanda.

Por otra parte, existen algunas pocas empresas como GrowPro, que cuentan con personal en los países destino como Australia y Nueva Zelanda. Estas personas también tienen un papel importante, ya que están al tanto de las últimas novedades de cada país y son el enlace con los estudiantes que ya se encuentran en el lugar, quienes también fueron afectados por la crisis sanitaria.

Sin duda, las autoridades de Australia y Nueva Zelanda están haciendo todos sus esfuerzos para normalizar la situación cuanto antes. Mientras tanto, las agencias educativas cumplen un rol fundamental estando al lado de los estudiantes, ayudándolos en este momento de incertidumbre.

Fuente de la Información: https://www.notimerica.com/comunicados/noticia-comunicado-jovenes-esperan-apertura-fronteras-vivir-australia-nueva-zelanda-agencias-educativas-20200723094720.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Australia: Students head back to school amid coronavirus nerves

Oceania/ Australia/ 21.07.2020/ Source: www.smh.com.au.

 

Health authorities are confident hygiene and social distancing measures will reduce the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks in schools as NSW students return to class for term three.

The NSW Department of Education will press ahead with the easing of restrictions in public schools, including allowing special religious education volunteers back onto campus, and the resumption of inter-school competitions and work experience.

Some principals said they were nervous students’ return would exacerbate COVID-19 outbreaks in south-west Sydney, particularly after a cluster at Al-Taqwa College in Melbourne led to 173 cases.

But Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said the NSW Department of Education had «strong, COVID-safe practices».

«We’re very confident in the social distancing and hygiene measures that have been put in place,» she said.

Dr Chant urged parents to maintain a safe physical distance when dropping off and picking up their children, and said while masks were a personal decision for families, children often did not use them properly, which could lead to further risk.

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant has confirmed 20 new COVID-19 cases were diagnosed in the last 24-hours.

«At this point in time we are not recommending that students are sent to school with face masks,» she said.

While NSW Health research found transmission rates were low between school students, a major study from South Korea involving thousands of coronavirus cases found rates were as high as adults among those aged between 10 and 19.

However, the director of the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, Kristine Macartney, said the Korean study looked at transmission within households rather than at school.

«What’s important to bear in mind is that households are quite different to schools,» she said. «If we stick to the health advice, I am confident we will see little transmission in school.

«As we have seen in Victoria, when the virus is out in the broader community, and we have circulation in families, communities and schools put together, that’s a different situation.»

Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, an adviser to the World Health Organisation, said Victorian health authorities were investigating the Al-Taqwa cluster, but the most likely driver was social contact between students’ families after hours rather than between students on campus.

«Authorities will start looking at whether the students are actually from family clusters, and happen to go to the same school,» she said.

President of the Parents and Citizens Federation Tim Spencer said parents were concerned about the spread of COVID-19 in the community, but «at this stage we are hopeful that the Department [of Education] will be able to manage anything that may occur,» he said.

NSW Teachers Federation President Angelo Gavrielatos said the union would continue to monitor the situation.

«As always our actions will be informed by putting the health and safety of students and teachers and principals first,» he said.

Source of news: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/students-head-back-to-school-amid-coronavirus-nerves-20200720-p55dsc.html

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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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