Sharri Markson: Science class has been cancelled in NSW
Gladys Berejiklian has let the unions, not the doctors, call the shots on when kids go back to class – the latest in her long line of surrenders on education policy in NSW, writes Sharri Markson.
Opinion
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With parts of Australia close to eradicating COVID-19, there is no reason why millions of citizens in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia should stay locked away at home, “under the doona” as Scott Morrison puts it.
Still when it comes to reopening the economy, it needs to be done carefully so the transmission of the virus, and the death rate, does not quickly and uncontrollably intensify.
NSW government modelling shows the one restriction that can be lifted with minimal health impact but significant boost to the economy is that of school closures.
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet took an analysis of the activities that could be reopened for maximum economic impact to a State Emergency Operations Centre leadership meeting last Friday morning.
Schools were at the top of the list.
Yet, Premier Gladys Berejiklian has chosen not to follow the advice of her own government, instead announcing that from May 11, students will return to school just one day a week.
Berejiklian has cited health advice as the bedrock of her government’s decisions at every stage of the fight against this virus. Yet, she has chosen to ignore the health advice when it suits her.
In fact, schools should never have closed, according to the medical experts.
NSW school students — who already are at an educational disadvantage, performing worse academically than their peers around the world — will have missed over four months of school this year.
This has been incredibly difficult for parents and was utterly unnecessary in slowing the spread of coronavirus, according to our leading medical experts.
So why has Berejiklian refused to follow the health advice when it comes to schools and, instead, acted contrary to it?
It’s because her government is entirely beholden to the teachers’ union.
The NSW Teachers Federation has grown powerful after remaining virtually unchallenged over many years and successive premiers and education ministers.
Berejiklian’s view is that bowing down to the teachers’ union neutralises education as a political issue – which of course means no reform, either.
In power, the Liberals have given up on improving learning outcomes for students at a time when Australian students failed to exceed the OECD average for maths, according to the Program for International Student Assessment results in December last year.
NSW students’ performance fell the most out of all the states.
To give a sense of the level of importance Berejiklian places on education, rather than responding to the repeated release of test results showing our appalling global rankings by appointing one of her top ministers to the portfolio, she traded the education ministry with the Nationals in exchange for police.
A senior Coalition figure commented that NSW education ministers have “bowed very easily to the Teachers Federation’’.
The result, the source said, has been a “socialist style approach to education in NSW’’.
“For some reason, there is an unholy alliance with the Teachers Federation and there is a distinct unwillingness to want to stand up to them,” the source said.
So when the health officials told Berejiklian to keep the schools open, did she listen to the best medical experts in the country or did she listen to the left-wing unionists?
You know the answer.
“Rather than fighting the good fight, they just shrugged their shoulders and went ‘you win’, which is disappointing,” the source said of the Berejiklian government.
“There is a lack of moral fortitude to stand up and do the right thing. We are talking about a kid’s education here.”
Morrison has already made the point that nurses, doctors, cleaners, supermarket workers and others are prepared to work in high-risk jobs on the frontline, yet the teachers unions have not been prepared to do their jobs in circumstances deemed low-risk.
“Schools are the obvious place for us to move back to normal as quickly as possible,” Morrison told Sky News’ Kieran Gilbert on Friday afternoon.
He said social distancing in the classroom is “not a credible” requirement, but was only necessary in the staffroom, like it is in other workplaces.
“Their (teachers’) risk is not in the classroom, their risk is in the staffroom. We have people who are going to work in supermarkets everyday, doing jobs all over the community and they are turning up to do those things. The health advice is very clear.”
As I’ve previously revealed, the initial friction over the school issue led to a raised-voices argument between Berejiklian and Morrison.
Berejiklian has since become paranoid about Morrison complaining about her and “briefing against her’’.
In fact, it is Berejiklian who complains about the Prime Minister.
The federal government is now working around Berejiklian by engaging directly with schools in NSW to try to reopen them.
Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan has been in talks for the past two weeks with the Independent Schools Association in NSW and there was a meeting of 24 principals this week about getting schools reopened in the next three to four weeks.
NSW Catholic schools are also understood to be keen to reopen.
Tehan says he will continue to ramp up the pressure on states and schools to open their doors, and he’ll join me tomorrow at 6pm on Sky News to speak about this.
The pressure will continue to mount on Berejiklian over this issue as exasperated parents of children who attend public schools watch their independent school counterparts safely return to the classroom.
Remember, the closure of schools doesn’t just have an impact on productivity and the economy.
Research shows it’s the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children in our society who are worse off, with no capacity to learn online and no parental supervision.
For them, schools are a safe haven.