This week, Teacher has been sharing reader stories on their school’s response to the pandemic. This final instalment is written by Michael Rosenbrock, Assistant Principal at Wodonga Senior Secondary College, on the border of Victoria and New South Wales.

In today’s article, Kate Hill – an Australian teacher from Melbourne who is currently teaching Year 7 and 8 English at Braeburn School in Nairobi, Kenya – gives an international perspective on learning during the pandemic.

‘While schools will be gradually re-opening in China by mid-April, they’re closing around much of the rest of the world. How well are we prepared? OECD’s TALIS survey offers some insights,’ Andreas Schleicher, the organisation’s Director for Education and Skills, writes in his latest Teacher column.

In her last column, Dr Sue Thomson examined secondary school teacher and principal views on resourcing issues that hinder quality teaching, as revealed by the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey. What, then, do these teachers see as the spending priorities for Australian education? And are the priorities different in primary schools?

'While people have different views on the role that digital technology can and should play in schools, we cannot ignore how digital tools have so fundamentally transformed the world outside of school,' OECD Director of Education and Skills Andreas Schleicher writes in his new column.

‘The quality of an education system can never exceed the quality of its teachers.’ In his new column, OECD Director of Education and Skills Andreas Schleicher explores responses from TALIS 2018 where teachers around the globe share their views on the state of the teaching profession.

‘The reality is, teaching can be really tough, and teachers, more concerned with the health and wellbeing of their students, can often put their own wellbeing last,’ Julia Gillard writes in her latest Teacher column.

Dr Sue Thomson explores how the COVID-19 crisis has propelled schools to an online learning environment, and draws on data from the OECD’s 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and 2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) to shed light on students’, teachers’ and schools’ preparedness for the ‘new normal’.

In his final Teacher column of the year, OECD Director of Education and Skills Andreas Schleicher argues the biggest risk to schooling today isn’t its inefficiency, but that our way of schooling is losing its purpose and relevance.

Professor Geoff Masters AO has been saying recently that the Gonski 2.0 recommendations may provide our best hope of reversing the long-term decline in the reading, mathematics and science levels of Australian 15-year-olds. Why does he say this? Find out more in his latest Teacher column.