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RUBY:

From Schwartz Media I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am.

Archival Tape – Maria:

Hi, my name is Maria and I’m starting in Grade 4 this week.

Archival Tape – Molly:

Hi, my name is Molly, and I'm going into year nine this week.

RUBY:

This week, children across NSW and Victoria are finally going back to school.

Archival Tape – Molly:

I'm excited to see my friends and get back on campus, considering that a lot of my classes have been online over the past couple of years…

RUBY:

Lockdowns and school closures have meant that many children have spent the better part of two years learning remotely.

Archival Tape – Reporter:

Melbourne students have missed out on 24 weeks of classroom learning and counting…

Archival Tape – 9news Reporter:

Experts warn more and more children are opting out of online classes, but there is no plan to get them back in classrooms...

RUBY:

But the decision to reopen schools right now, in the middle of the Omicron wave, has been fraught, with governments caught between trying to reduce case numbers, to wanting to live with the virus.

Archival Tape – Maria:

I’m feeling quite excited because I get to meet my new teacher and lots of my other classmates… But I also feel like I'm nervous about something, but I don't know what…

RUBY:

Today, journalist Hannah Ryan on the debate over when, and how, to return to in-class learning… and what going back to school actually looks like.
It’s Tuesday February 1

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RUBY:

Hannah, This week is huge for a lot of people, for a lot of families, children are going back into classrooms in New South Wales and Victoria after two years of interrupted learning. So there's a lot of excitement and a lot of trepidation, I think about what that is going to mean. Is that what you're hearing?

HANNAH:

Yeah, so it's just been such a crazy and disruptive two years for kids at school. In New South Wales, you've had students losing the equivalent of a semester in school and in Victoria, that's been even more, So I think there's a huge sense of relief from parents, students, teachers that that is over, at least for the foreseeable future.
But at the same time, there's a lot of trepidation, I think, about what the risk to students and teachers and the people that they live with might be when we're seeing so many more cases in the community than we've ever seen during a school term before.

RUBY:

Yeah, the number of cases - even if they aren’t as severe - is confronting, especially when you compare it to two years ago, and all the measures that we put in place to keep cases low. And that’s really when this debate about schools started, back at the beginning of 2020. So, could you take me back to that moment and tell me about how that decision was reached to close schools in the first place?

HANNAH:

Yes. So right at the beginning of the pandemic, we had governments that were very determined to keep schools open.

Archival Tape – Scott Morrison:

The health advice here, supported by all the premiers, all the chief ministers and my government, is that schools should remain open…

HANNAH:

So the line was that they would be the last to close, and the first to open.

Archival Tape – NSW Premier:

Schools stay open. If you need to send your child to school, schools stay open

HANNAH:

It was a scary time. We didn't know that much about COVID 19, and there was a lot of concern about schools being a site of a lot of spread of the virus and what the risk to kids might be. So we saw parents starting to keep their kids at home, and we also had teachers who were really worried about what was going to happen.

Archival Tape – Reporter:

Premier Daniel Andrews yesterday made the decision to close schools from tomorrow, and this was after there were more cases of COVID 19 confirmed in Victoria. He has just provided an update…

HANNAH:

So then in response to that, Victoria brought their school holidays forward. And then New South Wales said that schools would technically stay open, but said that kids should stay at home if they could, and that all learning would be online. And then eventually everyone decided to shut down schools. And they've had to adapt to a remote learning model that we've seen on and off in some states for two years now.

RUBY:

Mmm, and that remote learning model, that was a huge adjustment for so many families and also for schools as well, wasn't it?

HANNAH:

Yeah, it was a really challenging time. So teachers were scrambling to try to figure out how they were going to teach a classroom full of students suddenly online and through a computer.

Archival Tape – Tamara:

It was a whole new form of teaching, you know, using pre-produced content, which is not really how we naturally work in the classroom. So I think for me and for many teachers, that was quite a daunting task…

HANNAH:

I spoke to a primary school teacher in Melbourne, her name is Tamara, and she said that the adjustment from going from in-classroom teaching to remote learning was one of the most challenging experiences of her professional life.

Archival Tape – Tamara:

Usually my day usually involves me walking into a school where there's four hundred and fifty people around and there's volume and energy and laughter, and that's energy that I feed off. And it went from that type of space to me working off a desk out on the side of the road in my bedroom and it was me and a screen.

HANNAH:

Another primary school teacher from Melbourne that I spoke to, Tomohiko Harada, he told me about the enormous challenge that was trying to figure out in a really short amount of time how to engage a classroom full of year twos in online learning.

Archival Tape – Tomohiko:

We worked really long hours to create original content, and that was really, really hard,

HANNAH:

And he said that it just really wasn't easy. It was time consuming and it took a lot of creativity.

Archival Tape – Tomohiko:

We created a few fun activities, such as dance activities with the children, and we dressed up together,

Archival Tape – Tomohiko:

Hello this is the spelling bear!
Roar!

Archival Tape – Tomohiko:

Hello everybody, My name is Daisy, I am a dog!

Archival Tape – Tomohiko:

And I made lots of animations and stick puppets to deliver my learning. And some of them really love those kinds of things

HANNAH:

But despite the best efforts to engage those kids, both of the teachers that I spoke to - Tamara and Tomohiko were pretty concerned for the kids that they were teaching.

Archival Tape – Tomohiko:

A lot of children quite often reported to me that they were sad or they were bored, and it was just a really difficult sort of thing to hear those things…

HANNAH:

At the same time, as teachers are dealing with this increased workload and trying to devise all these creative ways to deliver learning, you also had parents who were having to juggle working from home while homeschooling these kids. So it really was a huge struggle for everyone involved.

RUBY:

Right, so this shift to remote learning - it’s put pressure on everyone, on children, on teachers, on parents... and experts have recognised the impact of that, particularly on the education and the mental health of school kids. So, how has that influenced the current move to reopen schools?

HANNAH:

So the federal government has now stepped back, and they've said that the return to schools is really up to the states.

We've seen New South Wales and Victoria make the decision to kind of team up together. They've coordinated their approach and they're going to reopen together.

But you also have other states like Queensland and South Australia, who are delaying their return to school or staggering it for different year groups.

So that just really demonstrates that there is an ongoing debate about whether this is the right time to open or not.

RUBY:

We'll be back in a moment.

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RUBY:

Hannah we're talking about schools reopening in 2022. We've got New South Wales and Victoria going ahead this week, but other states are being more cautious… and I think that in itself shows just how controversial this debate is, and I was hoping that you could step me through what the arguments for and against reopening schools are.

HANNAH:

Yes, so there was an open letter recently written by 35 of Australia's top academics, doctors and community leaders that they sent to Australian governments and was also published in newspapers. And I think it really neatly summarises the argument in favour of charging ahead and opening schools.

So what they said is that from a medical perspective, delaying the return to school just doesn't make sense. It's not worth the cost. So they've pointed to Australian data that confirms that COVID 19 is a mild disease in children. And when kids are hospitalised, which is very unusual, they're only in hospital for usually a short time. And the overwhelming majority of children recover from the virus. They get better without lasting adverse effects.

And so they've said that it's not just, you know, exposure to the virus that's the health issue we need to think about. We also need to think about kids' mental health. Kids have already been through the ringer for the last two years, and by further delaying schools reopening, you'll further degrade their mental health, they said.
And they called children the lost voices of this pandemic, and they've said a decision not to return would greatly disadvantage the least privileged.

RUBY:

Hmm. Yeah. I mean, on face value, it does seem like remote learning would have been the hardest for kids who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Do we know if that is the case, if there has been an unequal impact of this?

HANNAH:

Absolutely. So experts have looked at what's happened when we've had children learning from home rather than at school, and they agree that there's been a real differential impact on kids, depending on kind of what their background is.

For example, teachers from high socioeconomic schools are more likely to say that they think their students have learnt well remotely than teachers from low socioeconomic schools.

It's not just kids who don't have as much money as other kids. There are also kids who have learning difficulties, disabilities who need extra care and support from schools that they get when they're in person. But they don't get it when they're remote learning. So there are these real concerns about what will happen to kids, especially disadvantaged kids, if you don't return to in-person learning.

RUBY:

And the really concerning thing about all of that, I suppose, is that it has now been two years. So that kind of disadvantage, that's how it becomes entrenched. What about the people, though, who are against reopening schools Hannah, and for maintaining remote learning for the time being? What are their biggest concerns about schools reopening?

HANNAH:

So nationally, we are in the middle of the most significant COVID wave, at least in terms of case numbers that we've ever seen. So people who are worried about schools returning are really worried about teachers, kids and their families being put at risk. And the idea that we might see numbers of Covid-19 really balloon out throughout the community when you get all these school kids together in one place.

So a lot of people are also arguing that if you delay schools going back by a few more weeks, it gives parents time to ensure that their kids are vaccinated. We know it's been hard to get vaccine appointments for kids. You've got roughly 76 percent of 12 to 15 year olds who are fully vaccinated, which is lower than the adult population.

And then if you think about five to 11 year olds, they've only recently been given the opportunity to be vaccinated at all. So no, no one in that age group is double vaccinated, so they just haven't had that opportunity yet.

And if you postpone a return to schools, it would give schools more time to prepare for this new reality, to ensure that they have the measures in place that they need to protect staff and students. And there's a sense at the moment that schools are scrambling and teachers don't know what's going on.

RUBY:

Mm-Hmm. Okay. So it sounds like there are two very distinct ways of looking at this issue, and that's reflected in how different states are moving ahead. Some are going back to in-class learning and some aren't, at least not for the time being.

But it does seem like most children will be back in school pretty soon across the country. So what exactly does that actually look like? How will in-class learning be different now, than from before the pandemic?

HANNAH:

So things are going to be looking very different and it would be very difficult to imagine learning like this before the pandemic ever came along. So the first thing that's going to be a surveillance testing scheme where rapid antigen tests are rolled out across most states.

For example, in New South Wales, families are going to get eight rapid tests per student, and they've been asked to test their kids twice a week for the first four weeks of term. And then that programme is going to be reviewed.

Then you've got things like mask mandates, and in Victoria, for example, students in year three and above. So eight year olds and above, are going to have to wear masks in the classroom at all times.

But the key thing is going to be that schools just seem unlikely to be closed again in any significant way, at least in New South Wales and Victoria. So they won't shut down even if students test positive and there will be cases. So what that means is that schools are really preparing for a hard slog where, you know, despite staff going into isolation, students testing positive and that sort of thing, the show will go on. Some states are actually pulling in retired and student teachers to help patch up their workforce to deal with that risk.

RUBY:

Mm-Hmm. And so how are teachers feeling about all of that, Hannah? Because it does seem like a stressful situation that they're going to have to manage going forward.

HANNAH:

Yeah so it is complicated. Nobody really thinks that remote learning is ideal - that's nobody's preferred way of doing things. And a lot of teachers have really hated doing remote teaching. It's just not the same.

Archival Tape – Tamara:

I feel it has been such a disjointed couple years that, you know, for me, I want to build a bit of momentum and be able to lean into all those wonderful creative ideas that I have with the hope of actually being able to see them through - is a really nice and exciting thought. But yeah, it is daunting. You know, we are walking into a space with, you know, the most unvaccinated, you know, demographic.

HANNAH:

But what I'm hearing from teachers is that they're also really anxious, they’re worried.

Archival Tape – Tamara:

You know, kids are getting sick and you know, we care for these kids and you know, it is, you know, you do feel anxiety about that.

HANNAH:

They're worried about their health, they're worried about the health of their students. And there are just so many unknowns about how all this will play out, that it's causing that anxiety.

Archival Tape – Tomohiko:

There's a little anxiety about going back to a school environment, there's going to be, you know, well there’s going to be some risks involved in that.

But I have all the confidence that we'll be okay. But at the same time, yeah, it's kind of nerve wracking thought having to teach in a pandemic.

HANNAH:

I think to a lot of teachers, it feels like decisions are being made at the last minute, maybe not being communicated to them super well, you know, they're hearing things in the news, they're hearing other things from the department, they're hearing other things from their principals.

So I think at the end of the day, everyone in this - parents, teachers, bureaucrats, medical experts - wants what's best for kids, but there is no real agreement on what that means.

RUBY:

Mm-Hmm. It feels like it's been that way for the past two years, Hannah.

HANNAH:

Yeah.

RUBY:

Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it.

HANNAH:

Thanks, Ruby.

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RUBY:

Also in the news today,

Federal health minister Greg Hunt has said that older Australians could soon be eligible for a fourth dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

On Monday Hunt said the government’s expert advisory group on vaccines, ATAGI, was examining advice around whether fourth doses could potentially be provided to older Australians and those working with vulnerable patients.

And Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has warned that state governments should not rely on the Commonwealth for financial support as they recover from the Omicron wave.

Frydenberg said the federal government ‘“can’t fund every program” and claimed it had done the bulk of the heavy lifting during the pandemic.

I’m Ruby Jones, this is 7am, see ya tomorrow.

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