Teachers will be instructed how to teach teenagers about the Holocaust, through quality-controlled but potentially “disturbing” lessons about the evil of antisemitism in the Albanese Government’s new Social Cohesion Education Hub. Source: The Australian.
The hub, to be launched today after endorsement from the nation’s education ministers, has been approved by the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, as well as specialists in Holocaust education.
Vice-chancellors will also be under pressure to stamp out antisemitism on campus when the federal government changes the threshold standards for university accreditation next month.
Universities will risk losing accreditation and public funding unless they “demonstrate a commitment to addressing racism”, including antisemitism.
They have been given a deadline of August 31 to adopt a legally binding definition of antisemitism.
The federal government appointed constitutional lawyer and former Australian Catholic University vice-chancellor Greg Craven to write a “report card” on how universities were tackling the scourge of antisemitism.
But Professor Craven reported that not one university had defined antisemitism in a way that could be used to handle complaints or discipline students or staff.
Ms Segal has now written to all vice-chancellors asking them to adopt a legally binding definition by the end of August.
In schools, teachers will have free online access to 50 of the best existing anti-racism resources collected from across the country, with half focused on anti-Semitism.
The launch of the teaching modules follows calls from the Australian Education Union for government guidance in teaching high school students about the Holocaust, when Nazi Germany murdered 6 million Jews during WWII.
A PhD thesis on Holocaust lessons found that some teachers in New South Wales have avoided the topic for fear of upsetting Arab students during the Israel-Gaza war.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said there is “no place for the poison of antisemitism in our schools, universities or anywhere in our society”.
Ms Segal said it was her “strong hope” the website for lesson plans, along with UNESCO teacher training, would “help support schools to respond to the rising levels of antisemitism, as well as intolerance and prejudice more broadly”.
Teaching materials can also be accessed by parents and students at www.socialcohesionhub.edu.au.
FULL STORY
New Holocaust lessons for high schools as universities face antisemitism deadline (By Natasha Bita, The Australian)
