The impact of a mine fire and smoke event on academic outcomes for primary and secondary school students

Abstract

This study explored how exposure to a mine fire and smoke event influenced students’ academic outcomes. National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy scores for 303 students (aged 7.8-16.2 years) were obtained, along with self-reported event-related distress (Children’s Revised Impact of Events Scale [CRIES-13]). The longitudinal analysis found that adolescent students from more exposed schools, and not younger children, had delayed academic development after the event (14.9 months delay in year 7 (95% CI: 9.4 to 20.5) and 21.5 months in year 9 (95% CI: 13.6 to 29.5). Increased distress (CRIES-13) was not associated with academic delays. Results have implications for understanding the impact of disasters on adolescent school achievement and how educational institutions might respond to reduce this impact.

Evaluating the impact of Hazelwood mine fire event on students’ educational development with Bayesian interrupted time series hierarchical meta-regression

“…A subsequent evaluation of National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results of survey participants suggested academic delays in highly smoke-exposed areas. 25 However, the low participation rate in the survey, as is frequently the case in post-disaster studies, introduced risk of bias. 26,27 Hence the aggregated school-level NAPLAN data from all Victorian schools were obtained to further consolidate our findings.…”