Palaszczuk Government’s homeschooling crash proves they are failing our teachers and kids

The fact that Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk flagged potential “confusion” ahead of today’s epic homeschooling crash is an indication that she and Education Minister Grace Grace really have no clue when it comes to our kids, writes Kylie Lang.

THE clusterfracas that is today’s statewide outage for online learning proves what an epic fail this Labor Government is when it comes to educating young people.

As exhausted parents – already trying to juggle their own work with the fresh demands to home school – dutifully logged on this morning to The Learning Place they quickly discovered there was no learning place at all.

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One Ascot State School parent said she was tearing out what was left of her hair in frustration, and I don’t blame her.

Education Minister Grace Grace and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: AAP/Richard Gosling

The fact that Premier Palaszczuk even flagged potential “confusion” ahead of the first day of Term 2 is further indication that she and Education Minister Grace Grace really have no clue.

“Teething problems”?

Really, Minister Grace. Children who are not babies should not be experiencing teething problems when trying to receive an education.

It’s not just kids excluded from bricks and mortar schools who faced total disruption this morning.

Children of essential workers and those considered vulnerable also were victims of this spectacular blunder.

And yet private schools managed to get their act together.

At Brisbane Girls Grammar, St Joseph’s College Gregory Terrace, Somerville House and others too numerous to mention, learning went ahead smoothly – responding as best as could be expected in these unprecedented times.

Their success has nothing to do with resourcing, but everything to do with careful planning, consultation with parents and common sense.

Private schools like St Joseph’s College Gregory Terrace had no issues with online learning. Picture: AAP

At Cannon Hill Anglican College, for example, teachers are being assigned to one classroom and must remain there, while attending students sit the required distance apart.

Any risk of contracting COVID-19 is so small it’s not even worth talking about.

Yes, a few cases have occurred overseas but these have been in countries that were far slower to respond to the pandemic than Australia and have significantly larger populations, such as the United States.

My position remains unchanged: Schools should reopen, with strict social distancing and other safety measures in place.

Not only is homeschooling a ridiculous burden to place on parents already adjusting to working from home (if they’re lucky) but it is detrimental to the learning of children.

It is unreasonable to expect an untrained teacher substitute – aka mum or dad, without a career in education – to be able to offer anywhere near the quality of schooling that a child receives in class.

This is not just my opinion, but that of many teachers and principals I know.

The only thing not sending kids to school is achieving is the waste of an entire year, and good luck trying to get back those children who were never that engaged in school in the beginning. Those will be lost forever.

However, we have a Labor Government bowing to whatever the Queensland Teachers Union president Kevin Bates says.

While that’s no surprise whatsoever, that same Government is unable to organise even partially efficient online learning, instead creating a headache that parents and students don’t need and certainly don’t deserve.

On a school report card, I call that an F.