- Published:
- Wednesday 9 December 2020
New teaching and learning resources will be ready for schools next year as part of the Andrews Labor Government’s work to teach the Holocaust in school and address antisemitism in the community.
Minister for Education James Merlino today announced a comprehensive suite of new materials will be available to help teachers ensure students understand the Holocaust and its significance.
This includes lesson sequences, a bibliography of Holocaust-related texts and a comprehensive suite of historical sources that teachers can draw on to enhance existing or develop new Holocaust education programs.
There will be more than 280 resources available such as diary extracts, documents, interactive online exhibitions, virtual tours, poems, newspaper articles, videos and images.
The Labor Government will also provide $50,000 to the Jewish Holocaust Centre to develop a professional learning program for teachers to help them develop learning programs in Victorian secondary schools.
New school policy and teaching guidelines have also been developed that includes a requirement for schools to teach the Holocaust in secondary schools in Year 9 or 10.
These guidelines have been developed in direct partnership with the Victorian Jewish community, Gandel Philanthropy, alumni of the Gandel Holocaust Studies Program for Australian Educators, and Holocaust Education experts from Victorian, national and international organisations including Yad Vashem’s World Holocaust Memorial Centre in Jerusalem.
The new advice encourages student participation in immersion experiences that challenge their beliefs and understandings, such as meeting Holocaust survivors, visiting the Jewish Holocaust Centre or Jewish Museum of Australia and undertaking upstander programs such as Courage to Care or Click Against Hate.
The Government is ensuring Victorian students learn about, and embrace lessons from, the Holocaust and schools play their part in combatting racism including antisemitism.
The Government has also increased funding to Courage to Care, established a dedicated hotline to report racism for schools, students and parents, and established a new student advisory group to advise on how to address antisemitism and look at what more we can do to make sure our schools are inclusive communities.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Education James Merlino
“It is critical that each generation understands how hatred and discrimination led to something as horrific as the Holocaust in order to fight intolerance and prejudice in our own communities.”
“Studying the Holocaust will provide students with opportunities to explore courage and adversity, upstander behaviours and resilience that are so important in an uncertain world.”