Schools or No Schools

I’ve read a number of posts from parent groups over the weekend, in regard to the West Australian (WA) government shutting schools down asap, quoting recent cases of NSW_students and staff testing positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) in NSW and a number of private schools on the east coast steering towards online education classes and why WA isn’t acting proactively to do the same.

This follows our Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison ordering the closure of all pubs, clubs, casinos, nightclubs, churches and gyms, after many Australian people showed their inability to follow through on social distancing measures and these strict new rules (announced on Sunday 22 March 2020) were considered Australia’s most important combatant against COVID-19.

Our local WA Premier, Mark McGowan also ordered the closure of West Australian borders to all non-essential travel and has announced the government is reviewing Rottnest Island as a quarantine area. Our Australian government acting somewhat behind the eight ball, where borders should’ve been closed to all travellers some three and a half weeks ago, in line with the US and with consideration to the uprise in cases that swept across Italy, with all residents being given 72 hours to return home, or simply get “locked-out.” Harsh, yes, but preventative and for those that like to live outside the rules, well please do at your own risk and not that of others.

So, just as Australians start to gain confidence in the decisive action of our Prime Minister and his stance and implementation of new rules and policies to protect the Australian people, we have the published statement “children should go to school, but parents can keep them at home if they want.” In layman’s emoji speak WTF?

As a parent of a young family, I understand the importance of keeping our families safe. Most high schools now have much of their curriculum online and our TAFE and university students have already been placed into online environments. Leaving our primary children the anomaly.

Placing some logic to this, it is paramount our children continue to receive an education. Especially, as our country’s education on world standards, prior to COVID-19 had slipped behind in the areas of math, reading and science to a lag of 3.5 years behind our Chinese_counterparts.

Considering the medical advice given to our State government and the National Cabinet on Sunday, noting schools should remain open, with all children attending – to be somewhat controversial to family, friends and peers - I agree with this decision.

As I work from home, now as a sole practitioner, with minimal workload on the books, the past few weeks has placed considerable stress on our IT infrastructure, ability to teleconference or video-conference without glitches and personally watching Netflix or Disney channel with my children, even off-peak times later in the evening is nearing impossible.

Should you have an unfailing, well streaming NBN network connection with no disruption and a school with content readily available for your children to seamlessly work remotely, the below home-schooling 5 tips and reference article by Misha Ketchell is a fantastic guide for parents.

Early childhood education is incredibly important to our children, and keeping them at home becomes our choice as a parent. With this in mind, I wonder whether COVID-19 social distancing restrictions would be adhered to at home, or would these children be allowed to congregate down at the local shopping centre, or perhaps be minded by their grandparents (placing this demographic again at risk). Will Easter Holidays at places like the Big 4 caravan parks still be taken, with our children jumping around on bouncy pillows and swing sets with other children.

Added to this, are parents who have chosen to keep their children at home, prepared to analyse their children’s learnings over 2020, and potentially early be prepared to keep their children back a year in their education.

The responsibility of our children’s education rests with parents taking ownership, but this is where most parents are not “educational” teachers. I’m aware the ACT is moving to distant learning for the of majority students and believe for senior education this should be considered the “norm” where these children are for all respective purposes “little adults” capable of self-learning and if not online learning, working through text books and set home-works by their teachers, but for those students under 15, I’m somewhat hesitant.

In addition, have we considered those students in financial difficulty, where access to a computer and internet access may simply not be available.

So what’s best for our younger demographic? Who knows, but I do believe we need to support our Premier Mark McGowen in keeping schools open for the time being and parents being vigilant in outside of school activity practicing social distancing. Our schools are keeping their community up-to-date with constant emails and updates on SEQTA Engage, Flexischools and other medium. Desks have been separated in classrooms, hand sanitisers on every desk or classroom, libraries closed, group workings restricted, assemblies cancelled all to meet social distancing policies.

Teachers are educating students on the severity of the virus and being aware of their own bodies and what to do should they feel unwell. My guess is, our children are better informed than most adults and are following the rules as given. Should the majority of adults in our community have followed the rules of social distancing and self-isolation, our State and country may not be feeling the spike in cases and restraints as now put in place by our governments.

My concerns lay within the early childhood years, that of our students from Kindy to Year 3, that don’t quite understand what’s going on and can’t comprehend the importance of not touching and not playing together in the playground. These young minds are our future, but also the most vulnerable. My daughter’s classroom (pre-primary) has shed numbers to half, from 26 students to now below 14, where parents have made the choice to keep their child at home - following a daily schedule, similar to the example below (by Jessica McHale Photography).

Right or wrong, as ATAR is under review for the year, exams are being foregone, universities are considering alternative selection criteria for testing students for 2021, our education system and our students are under stress, where not all students are in a position to take an extended “Easter/winter break” without dire consequence to their education.

Hopefully, we will all be more diligent in our application of social distancing (or "physical" distancing for my politically correct readers) within our schools for our next generation and as much as we are reviewing WA’s beautiful Rottnest Island as an Isolation Camp, why not view our schools as “Educational Isolation Centres” – that allows learning and creation of the best minds of today for tomorrow in a safe environment!

Can we do this? Time will tell.