Family-of-nine shows school closures impact some families more than others

School holidays are over. Most states in Australia will have remote learning available for students, and parents will be facing a new challenge entering the new term. With two working parents and seven children at home, the Deng Michael family fear their kid’s education will suffer if schools remain closed.

Abraham with his daughter Yar

Source: The Feed

Living in Greater Western Sydney, the Deng Michael family face a unique challenge when it comes to remote learning.

Father-turned-supervisor, Abraham, has almost a full class on his hands.

"Two are in highschool, three are in primary school, one is in preschool and the other is still in childcare," Mr Deng Michael told The Feed.

"Having seven children is a challenge, it's a challenge in terms of finances, time and everything. But it's lovely, kids are gifts."

With students in New South Wales encouraged to stay home at the end of term one, year nine student and eldest child, Yar Deng Michael, had a taste of what's to come in term two.

"It's stressful and really annoying because my little siblings will be coming to me asking for things and I'm already stressing with my own work, like, there's too much noise," Yar told The Feed.

"I know that I can focus, but there's a chance that I could fall behind because it's harder to do the work by yourself without having the teacher to guide you through."

Both Abraham and his wife work during the day and are unable to supervise their children during school hours.

"The first week they started this online studies, I was called from the school that 'your kids haven't logged on, what's going on with them?'," Abraham said.

"They tell you that 'we are doing our studies, we are doing our studies'...you believe that they are doing the right thing, but in actual fact they might be doing a different thing."

Whether students should be attending school amid the Covid-19 pandemic, is one of the most contentious issues of current public and political debate.

Education comes under the state governments' jurisdiction. What school will look like in term two depends on where students live.

The NSW Government announced that from May 11, the third week of term two, students will return to school one day a week.

"Initially it will just be a day a week, then progressively two days, and then we hope by the end of term two we'll be in a position to have students going back to school in a full-time capacity by term three," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

In Victoria, all students that can stay home are being encouraged to do so for the entirety of term two, while Queensland is looking to reopen schools in mid-May.

Parents in Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania will be able to send their children to school in term two if they wish, but online learning will be made available to those families with safety concerns.

The Northern Territory is the only Australian jurisdiction entirely unaffected by school closures.

"We could in fact see our next generation, or some of our next generation, perhaps lost to education and therefore impact on their learning capacity, livelihood and health going forward"

Research shows, over the summer holidays, young people regress by about a month of learning. And according to UNESCO ninety percent of children are out of school globally. That's more than 1.5 billion students.

University of Melbourne Dean of Education Jim Watterston says a prolonged period of time out of the classroom could have a long-term impact on a generation of students.

"We run the risk during this time of online learning for young people to completely detach," Dr Watterston told The Feed.

"There are approximately 50,000 young people in Australia of school age who aren't going to school when it's face to face and so the chances of retaining young people who are disengaged...in this environment is going to be really difficult.

"We could in fact see our next generation, or some of our next generation, perhaps lost to education and therefore impact on their learning capacity, livelihood and health going forward."

While his children have the resources they need to connect to online learning, Abraham Deng Michael is concerned some of their peers are going without.

"Unfortunately not everyone is able to afford all this for their kids, so this is a challenge because I know for sure some of the families now, their kids are sitting idly, they have no devices or even if they have devices, they don't have internet," he said.

"It's highly likely to happen that most of them will fall behind compared to other kids."

Education expert with the Grattan Institute Julie Sonnemann says if children fall behind, it could impact their learning ability going forward.

"What we know about learning is that it's like cheese. So, when there's holes in learning, and there's gaps in knowledge, it makes it much harder to move to the next level of learning, so those holes remain," Ms Sonnemann said.

"I think there is a real need to get kids back to school as quickly as we can...I'd be quite concerned if schools are shut for term three as well."


People in Australia must stay at least 1.5 metres away from others and gatherings are limited to two people unless you are with your family or household.

If you believe you may have contracted the virus, call your doctor (don’t visit) or contact the national Coronavirus Health Information Hotline on 1800 020 080. If you are struggling to breathe or experiencing a medical emergency, call 000.

SBS is committed to informing Australia’s diverse communities about the latest COVID-19 developments. News and information is available in 63 languages at sbs.com.au/coronavirus.


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By Michelle Rimmer

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