Doorstop at APH
Subjects: NAPLAN results, the COVID-19 National Plan, reopening schools.
ALAN TUDGE:
What we find from the NAPLAN results, that those results have been holding up despite the difficulties over the last 18 months. That's just great news for kids, it's great news for parents, and it's great news for teachers who have been doing that hard work through a very difficult period.
I do want to caveat though, that despite the fact that those overarching average numbers are very good and very encouraging for all of us, it may hide some cohorts who have really struggled. And we've been hearing this constantly, that some kids have disengaged completely. And we need to be very conscious of that and ensure that we can get those kids back up to speed.
I'm also very concerned about the ongoing impact of school closures on kids’ mental health. We know what the data is saying there. In my home state in Victoria in particular, we've seen significant spikes and calls to Kids Lifeline, to the Headspace centres, a doubling in calls to the Butterfly Foundation which deals with eating disorders, which is such an insidious condition. And that's where we're providing additional support to try to address those, of course. But on top of that, as soon as we can get those schools open so that kids can have their normal lives back, the better it's going to be for their social and emotional wellbeing.
Overall, it's positive news for kids, for parents, for teachers, who've had to endure so much over the last 18 months. And I just want to thank them for their resilience. We can see the light on the horizon in terms of getting to that 70 and 80 percent vaccination rate where we can open up our society again, including our schools.
QUESTION:
What's the plan for keeping these kids at school? Not just reopening them, but making sure they don't shut down again next year for the third year in a row?
ALAN TUDGE:
The plan is to get to that 70 and 80 per cent vaccination figure. Because once we're there, we don't have lockdowns like we've been having this year. That National Plan is very clear. We've all signed up for it. We've made the deal with the Australian people. The Australian people have done the hard yards on this, and they expect us to be opening up our society come 70 to 80 percent vaccination rate. I hope that we can get there very quickly.
QUESTION:
Given the percentages that you said, the mental health issues you spoke about, particularly in Victoria, are you concerned that while this year's NAPLAN results are okay, those mental health issues could feed into NAPLAN results in years to come? And that this may be a lasting legacy of the lockdowns on the education system?
ALAN TUDGE:
Jono, I am very concerned about the ongoing impacts of mental health. Some of those conditions, including eating disorders, once you acquire an eating disorder, it is very difficult to overcome them. We are likely to see ongoing impacts from a mental health perspective. I guess the results from NAPLAN today at least are showing that, on average, our academic results in the core basic skills are holding up, despite the school closures. That's just such a testament to the work that the kids have done, the parents have done, and the teachers have done over these 18 months.
QUESTION:
We have seen reading skills in Year 9 drop to their worst performance that we've seen. Are we going to see a whole generation of kids disconnect from learning through this disruption?
ALAN TUDGE:
I hope that is not the case, but it is my great worry. That there will be cohorts of kids who have completely disengaged from schooling throughout the last 18 months. There'll be other kids who have just shone, who may well have done better over the last 18 months because they've had more time to study and that's terrific for them. I do know that there will be kids who have completely disengaged because they haven't had that daily contact with the school, they haven't had the teachers face-to-face to be able to encourage them and keep them connected with their friends.
QUESTION:
If vaccinations are the key to keeping schools open permanently, would you like to see teachers having mandatory vaccinations? Would you like to see students aged 12 years and up getting the jab as well?
ALAN TUDGE:
I certainly want to see teachers getting vaccinated. Absolutely. I want to see all adults getting vaccinated. And we're working on the plan for kids to be vaccinated as we speak, and it should be finalised this week.
QUESTION:
When do you expect vaccines to be offered in schools?
ALAN TUDGE:
The plan is being worked on as we speak, and I think there'll be more to say about that at the end of the week.
QUESTION:
The vaccines aren’t only part of keeping people safe from COVID, though. Even when we open up at, say 70, 80 per cent, there will be COVID in the community. What other plans are in place to keep kids in schools with that level of COVID circulating?
ALAN TUDGE:
The Doherty advice is clear as well, that you need to get to the vaccination targets. Also you still need to maintain your health systems there as well, and the contact tracing, and the like. That's the expectation that, that we all have, and that states and territories, with the Prime Minister, have signed up to.
The plan is clear that once we get to those 70 to 80 per cent vaccination rates, then society becomes open again. That's the deal we've made with the Australian people, and that's what we're moving towards, and we're getting there very rapidly. We have to get there, we have to open up our society. Schools need to be open, not just so that that learning can occur, but for the social and emotional wellbeing, for the connections. We want to get kids back playing sport, doing the normal activities which they have, which is so important for their personal development.
QUESTION:
But to answer the question, what do you do to make that safe? Or safer? In terms of, as Rachel was just talking about, it's not just vaccines. There's going to be other measures you're going to need to put in place in schools, that states are going to have to look at putting in place in schools. What are you talking about as extra safety measures? Reduced class numbers? Spreading people out? What do you do?
ALAN TUDGE:
The states are working on those as we speak, I do know that. We don't run the school systems, as such, at the Federal level. We provide significant funding to them and have national priorities, but the states do the day-to-day management of the individual schools, along with the independent schools and the Catholic school authorities.
QUESTION:
You don't think there needs to be a national, kind of, overarching framework guiding how schools stay open into next year?
ALAN TUDGE:
The National Plan has been agreed by the National Cabinet in agreement with the Australian people. And that is to reach those vaccination targets and then open up the economy, including the schools, the operation of schools. Will be done by the owners of the schools, be it the state governments, the independent schools, and the Catholic school authorities, respectively.
QUESTION:
What would you say to premiers who now appear reluctant to follow the National Plan?
ALAN TUDGE:
I would say that the Premiers didn't just have an agreement with the Prime Minister, but they had an agreement with the Australian public. The Australian public is doing the work, they're presenting, they're getting vaccinated in record numbers. We're getting so close to getting to those figures of 70 and 80 per cent vaccination rates, and they've got to do their side of the deal. Which is to open up the economy, minimise the amount of disruption, minimise the amount of lockdowns so that we can get our society back to normal as much as we humanly can.
Thanks, everyone.