Page 985 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 May 2020
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Leave of absence
Motion (by Mr Gentleman) agreed to:
That leave of absence be granted to Mrs Dunne and Mrs Kikkert for family reasons for today.
Schools—attendance during the COVID-19 pandemic
MS LEE (Kurrajong) (3.03): I move:
That this Assembly:
(1) notes:
(a) our children’s education, development and wellbeing, particularly during these unprecedented times, is paramount;
(b) the advice consistently provided by the experts, including by the Commonwealth’s Chief Medical Officer, the ACT Chief Health Officer and the Australian Medical Association throughout the pandemic, has been that our schools are safe and they should be open;
(c) that COVID-19 has placed additional mental health pressures on many families; many children have struggled with the disruptions and social isolation; and their educational wellbeing is suffering as a result of this ongoing uncertainty;
(d) that parents with multiple children and who are also trying to work from home are finding it increasingly difficult to manage the many competing issues such as space, access to computers, family harmony and work output;
(e) that numerous reports on remote learning impacts conducted by leading Australian universities have found that up to half of all students will be adversely affected by a move to remote learning and that vulnerable students’ already identified educational disadvantage will be exacerbated further;
(f) that Year 12 students are particularly anxious about how assessments will be done and whether their access to university and/or other tertiary education options will be compromised the longer the current educational arrangements continue; and
(g) that the hub school arrangement is causing confusion for families and students and is creating an additional and unfair burden on teachers; and it was a decision not based on any current medical advice;
(2) further notes that, like any workplace, appropriate health practices should be implemented at all schools to provide a safe working environment for teachers and school staff, including supporting particularly vulnerable teachers to work safely from home; and
(3) calls on the ACT Government to allow all ACT parents to send their children to their regular school if they wish to.
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