QUEENSLAND has already pushed back its school starting dates from January 24 to February 7, and across the country, hopes for a clean start to the 2022 academic year are fading before the still-gathering pace of the latest wave of COVID-19.
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Yesterday, another 73,000 people tested positive in Australia for the virus.
If 90 per cent are Omicron, more than 7000 would still be the more serious Delta.
IN THE NEWS:
We have 500,000 active cases at the moment - half the pandemic-long total of one million.
Even this number is only 3.7 per cent of the population, meaning the major impacts for most have been economic and social.
For most adults, the disruption is something to be borne - admittedly with varying degrees of success - as another of life's inevitable trials.
But for children, the impact - especially to their education - has been unarguably profound, even given the extraordinary efforts of our teachers in quickly flipping our schooling model on its head to provide online lessons at home.
One study of 4800 NSW primary school students showed no significant difference in maths and reading results for 2020.
Even so, for many school pupils and their families, fears of "education loss" are all too real.
In the same way that "working from home" has its difficulties, so the adaption to online education will have been less than optimal for some of this country's four million school students.
Lessons missed can be very hard to pick up later.
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Despite the Queensland deferral, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday that his departmental secretary, Phil Gaetjens, was working with the states and territories to "harmonise" schooling plans.
While acknowledging the surging case numbers, Mr Morrison wants schools to "go back, stay back, day one, term one".
Since Monday, the Pfizer vaccine has been available to Australian children aged five to 11, under provisional approval.
COVID CORNER:
Despite our long history of child vaccination, some families may baulk at this step, despite official recommendations.
Even for those eager to return to school, the first term of the year may well be an uncertain time of repeated RAT tests and resultant spells of isolating.
A national approach sounds good, but education is a state responsibility and decisions will inevitably be made on the ground, school by school.
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