School Refusal
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“As a former teacher and school counsellor (psychologist) in the NSW education system, I was very interested to hear the discussion on the topic of school refusal. This is nothing new. It all comes back to the same old issue of the under resourcing of public education and over working teachers and counsellors.
As a counsellor, I was spread over three schools while working part-time for 3 days per week. I had a case load of around 30 students per school and I could never get through the work.
When I first began counselling in 2003, there were funding cuts. So, children with language learning difficulties no longer received in-school support from a teacher’s aide. Also, children with “low average” IQ scores (80 - 89) were in mainstream classes with no additional support.
The localities in which I worked were very high needs and there were children from refugee families, children with English as a second language and children whose parents were not literate in their own language. Teachers were overwhelmed, stressed and sometimes depressed.
There was never enough time to complete everything expected and classroom teachers were not trained well enough to support children with specific learning needs such as autism, apraxia, dyspraxia or specific mental health issues. In NSW, so called medical issues such as epilepsy were not funded. I remember one case where a child was enduring numerous petite mal episodes every day and her mother could not understand why she was not receiving support. She was justifiably angry,
The recent upsurge in school refusal is a symptom of a much deeper and prolonged problem. The fact that it is happening now, after the pandemic, may be because some children have realised that they can learn at home via technology and thus not have to endure being singled out as “different” and to cope with the bullying that often follows.
My suggestion to the mother of the children cited in your segment today, is to approach her MP and to enlist the support of her Parents and Citizens local and state group to begin lobbying governments for better funding and more appropriate training for teachers and all school staff. The Australian Education Union of Victoria may also be able to help. Also, as she would be aware, there are organisations that support children with autism and their parents. They may also be willing to lobby. It is only when governments feel they have a mandate and when issues become noisy and political that change occurs.”
LTOGJO via Apple Podcasts ·
Australia ·
08/23/23
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