The Age has published an article today about a recent report that criticised Australia’s widespread school closures. According to the article, “The review of Australia’s COVID-19 response found it was wrong to close schools en masse, particularly when they weren’t seen as high-transmission environments.”
Parents Victoria’s CEO, Gail McHardy was approached by the Age for a response, although her comments didn’t make it into the published article.
Gail said:
“Hindsight is a beautiful thing and as the report findings found, closing schools in the earlier lockdowns were a health decision and not an education decision. It’s important to remember school communities are the meat in the sandwich needing to act or respond in accordance to health advice. Yes the pandemic was damaging, debilitating and disruptive to education and everything else. If we are talking about harm – is the purpose of the report’s findings to learn from this life experience for the future or punish decision makers for the past?”
