Teachers face significant task to help students catch up on missed learning

As school is set to return more teachers are being recruited to help kids with “lost learning” after attendance rates plummeted during the pandemic.

TASMANIAN students will start returning to learning at school in just 10 days, with educators facing a significant task to help them catch up on what they have missed.

Students from Kindergarten to Grade 6 and those in Years 11 and 12 will be back in classrooms from May 25, with Years 7 to 10 returning two weeks later.

A predominantly at-home learning model was adopted due to coronavirus restrictions, with some saying the staged return to traditional settings would be akin to starting the year again after summer holidays.

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The teachers’ union has called for funding to be brought forward for additional education support specialists to help with the transition.

It was a call also made by federal opposition education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek, who said extra funding was needed so teachers could identify students who had fallen behind, and help them catch up.

Australian Education Union Tasmanian president Helen Richardson. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

Australian Education Union Tasmanian president Helen Richardson said teachers would need additional time to be “off-class” once students returned, to focus on individual learning needs.

“Teachers need time to plan and work with students at risk and those with additional needs,’’ she said.

Attendance rates fell below 10 per cent in Tasmanian Government schools before the end of term one, as parents were encouraged to keep their children home.

But they are now on the rise, with 25 per cent of students presenting to their schools on Tuesday, an increase of more than three per cent one week earlier.

When all students return in coming weeks, there would not be a “one size fits all” approach to helping students catch up on missed learning because children had different needs, Tasmanian Principals Association president Sally Milbourne said.

“In some respects, the year is starting again. It’s that gap in learning, like what occurs over the summer break,’’ she said.

Dr Milbourne said there also would be additional complexity given the anxiety among some students about the COVID-19 virus.

Catholic Education Tasmania executive director Gerard Gaskin said a learning at home model adopted by Catholic schools was designed to support continuity in learning and help teachers track students’ progress.

National experts have urged state governments to act urgently to address the “lost learning” of students, and to adopt other measures to help them track their students.

Students would have been sitting NAPLAN exams this week, but the controversial tests were abandoned for this year due to coronavirus disruptions.

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said the Department of Education had written to school authorities about monitoring students with progress reports, rather than the standard report cards, but that it was on an opt-in basis.