AEL 2020 Special Edition - Issue 1

Australian Primary School Education and COVID-19

Malcolm Elliott,President,Australian Primary Principals Association

As the pandemic emerged I was swept up in what seemed like a minute by minute evolution of the seriousness of the situation. Instantly the media seemingly turned all its collective attention to Covid-19 (or SARS-Cov-4 as I believe it should technically be called).

One of my first reflections was of a risk assessment and management trial run by the Tasmanian State Government more than 10 years ago. As a participant in this trial I learned that if schools were closed the state’s economy would crash because many workers would need to be at home to look after their children. It was apparent that such an occurrence had the capacity to do irreparable damage economically and socially. It was a dreadful prospect.

What wasn’t canvassed in the trial was government fiscal intervention. The Morrison government deserves great credit for the financial support it has provided for workers and businesses. Governments around the world quickly came to the realisation that without massive support the world would be facing financial collapse.

But what about schools and the children and families? We have been, so far, mercifully spared the trauma of this virus taking the lives of children. Health outcomes have been hugely positive for children compared to our elderly. My thoughts are with the families of the people whose lives have been lost during this period. Governments have been right to take every step to try to protect our older Australians. This, though, has left schools and systems on the horns of a dilemma: the young are probably carriers of the disease; the young are taught by a cohort of mature Australians. For example, fifty per-cent of Australian principals are 56 or older. We are all heartened by the medical advice that schools are safe.

Effective school leadership has been a crucial element in Australia’s management of the pandemic. Our principals and other leaders have led by reassuring and supporting their staff as the implications emerged; as thoughts, worries and even fears came to the surface in schools. Messages from federal, state and territory leaders, although originating in the federal cabinet, came with some slight differences and some that were huge.

My emotions have swirled over this period. I was taken aback by the suggestion that there would be no more school until 2021. To be honest, I just couldn’t conceive of that. It overwhelmed me. Shorter periods of time seemed a little more comprehensible, but the change to what I knew as a school principal and teacher was still massive and daunting. To be clear, I also had strong reservations about the claims being made about the switch to online learning. I knew that some schools would be well-positioned, as would some families. I also knew that the opposite side of the coin was well in play. My thoughts went straight to families with limited resources. No devices. No room. No quiet. No confidence. No capacity to pop out and buy anything to assist themselves and their children. I felt that our political leaders were making a lot of assumptions.

Through all this principals were expected to lead with optimism and hope. Teachers were expected to adapt. And to everyone’s credit this is exactly what has happened and will go on happening as schools re-adapt to more changing circumstances. It is fair to say that some jurisdictions have been more adept in consulting their educators than others. In some places there are scheduled online meetings of directorate leaders and principals. There are advisory groups. In other places there has been an absence of this with principals and teachers justifiably upset that the next strategy was announced in the media rather than through professional channels. The Inter-sectoral committee of principal associations wrote to the federal, state and territory ministers seeking consultation for the nation’s principals.

In the early days of school closures Principals were faced with standing down employees. Schools, so relationships based, feel the loss of one of their co-workers deeply. Principals had to deal with this reality knowing full well the impact on the individuals and the families concerned. This all compounds the pressure and stressors that leaders face. On top of that, our school workers continue to face the uncertainty of the trajectory of this disease. For our older school workers there is the double jeopardy for their own health while for many there is the risk of infection for elderly grandparents and parents.

As this uncertain set of circumstances plays out there have been some very strong positives. The two that stand out are the much more open lines of communication between home and school; and the hot house professional learning that we’ve all been through regarding information communication technology and its place in support of learning. Both of these are very welcome. We must insist, though, that all Australian children have access to fast, reliable broadband networks. This should now be regarded as a basic human right – especially in a country like Australia. Parents have a deeper appreciation of the role our teachers play and the importance of our school leaders. Going ahead the education community now has a range of options regarding delivery of education programs. As we get to grips with this experience we will also be able to consider variation in assessment and reporting. Surely there is scope for a national conversation, already under way in some jurisdictions, about continuous, formative assessment processes. I heard, too, of strong support for a movement away from ATAR. Maybe the days of the numeric, competitive, quantitative dominance of education discourse are coming to a close.

The Covid “era”, sadly, is far from over. The challenges go on. There is difference between states in the planning that is hard to fathom. Nevertheless, Australia has done very well to this point. Our political and system leaders deserve great credit. Leadership in any form at this time is a massive challenge. As our nation quite rightly applauds our medical professionals there is another group just as worthy of recognition – our school leaders and their staff.