Education expert knocks back claims of ‘wellbeing trap’ in Victorian schools

The president of the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals has knocked back suggestions that an increased focus on wellbeing in schools is doing an academic disservice to students.

It comes after senior lecturer at Monash University’s School of Educational Psychology and Counselling, Dr Erin Leif, told The Age the emphasis on supporting wellbeing threatened to crowd out time to focus on academic learning.

Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals president, Colin Axup, says he doesn’t think the state government’s $200 million mental health program in schools is a matter of schools sacrificing one thing for another.

“This is a good resource. This is not a resource that’s in place to take over from something else – i.e. scholastic achievement of students,” he told Jacqui Felgate and Jimmy Bartel, filling in for Ross and Russel.

“The reality is, for young people to do well at school they need to be healthy and happy.”

Press PLAY below to hear Mr Axup’s view