Kevin Rudd calls on ABC to devote multi-channels to home schooling materials
Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has taken to social media to suggest that with some schools closing and parents beginning to home-school their children, ABC multi-channels should be reprogrammed to deliver the national curriculum.
Some students may not have effective internet access at home, Rudd said, and could benefit from ABC Kids, ABC ME and ABC HD being redeployed to deliver teaching materials.
While he acknowledged that there are “no silver bullets” and the decision was a matter for governments, ABC and educators, “there’s no reason why this can’t be part of the mix of solutions”, he wrote.
“ABC Kids might be split into two-hour slots for each class group (Year 1 through Year 6) each day, starting at 7am. Prep is a separate matter,” Rudd suggested.
“For secondary students, this will be tougher given subject spread. ABC ME could carry six two-hour slots each day on the core subjects of English and Maths.”
Thanks everyone for the huge, positive response to this suggestion. There have been some questions about how this might work in practice. Well, that’s a matter for professional educators and the ABC, but here are some thoughts to support their deliberations.
— Office of Kevin Rudd, 26th PM of Australia (@MrKRudd) March 24, 2020
ABC HD could be used for specialised classes such as science and history, he went on, with the channels also continuing with education programming across the weekend to “make up for shorter teaching days”.
“Source material could be posted out to kids by state and private education systems. Despite the National Curriculum, state school systems would be key since school education is their responsibility,” Rudd added.
https://twitter.com/erinrileyau/status/1242394384697413632
When asked about the practicality or likelihood of such a solution being implemented, the ABC said it “already offers substantial education resources linked to the national curriculum on broadcast and digital”.
ABC Education is home to more than 4,000 videos, interactive resources and games mapped to the curriculum, a spokesperson said, across subjects including English, maths, science, history, geography, media and financial literacy, health, physical education, and the arts and technologies.
ABC ME, meanwhile, features education content from 10am-12pm daily, the spokesperson added.
Yesterday morning during this slot, programs such as History Hunters, The Children of the Holocaust, and Dates That Made History aired.
https://twitter.com/Rob_Stott/status/1242289167565914112
Children’s news program, Behind The News, has also released guides on social distancing and how to deal with upsetting news, for example, in the face of COVID-19.
Brittney Rigby was Mumbrella's deputy managing editor - news and analysis. She left Mumbrella in April 2021.
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Great idea.
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best idea Kevin07 has ever had
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Totally agree.
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The ABC doesn’t have the spare cash to buy let alone commission the extra content. If the various education departments were able to fund it, that would make it more feasible. But then many schools already pay for content like that, which is distributed online through Clickview. Kanopy is similar but less education focused service funded by many council libraries.
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Why not take 4 weeks from Christmas holidays and make Easter holidays longer. The gaps between children due the complexities of family and internet, technology alone are going be major issues.
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I absolutely love this idea. Kids will learn in all different ways and using our kids TV channels is perfect. Let’s face it if they have to be home for a length of time we need to utilise everything we’ve got.
If the ABC needs financial help to create such programs then that’s where some of our money needs to go to also. ??
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