High School Students Experience 18 Month Delay In Academic Performance After The Morwell Mine Disaster, Monash Rural Health Study Finds
The Hazelwood mine fire in February and March, 2014 impacted the academic outcomes of secondary students, leading to a 18.5 month delay in their progress, according to a study by researchers led by Monash Rural Health. Importantly no evidence of academic delays were seen in primary students impacted by the fires and long term smoke event.
The fire in the Morwell open cut brown coal mine next to the Hazelwood Power Station blanketed Morwell and surrounding areas in smoke and ash for six weeks February and March, 2014. It was considered one of the most significant air quality incidents in Victoria’s history. The Hazelwood Health Study was started later that year to look at ongoing issues relating to exposure to the smoke event, focusing on particular outcomes such as heart and lung disease and mental health, and on potentially vulnerable groups such as infants, school-aged children and older people.
The analysis, published in the journal, Trauma Psychology and led by Dr Emily Berger, from Monash University’s Faculty of Education, looked at the NAPLAN results of over 300 students from twenty primary and secondary schools in the Latrobe Valley, the main impacted site from the mine fire, including seven schools in Morwell, the town most exposed to the fire and smoke, and 13 schools outside of the main impact area.
In addition to accessing NAPLAN results, researchers surveyed the students using the Children’s Revised Impact of Events Scale (CRIES-13), in late 2015, between 16 and 21 months after the fire. The CRIES survey is specifically designed to assess symptoms of PTSD in children and young adults who have been exposed to specific traumatic events. These were then used to determine the impact of the fires on a student’s NAPLAN results.
According to Dr Berger, a similar study of children and adolescents impacted by the 2002 Prestige oil spill disaster in Spain which causedthat country's worst environmental disaster, showed that – one year after the event – 15-to-16 year-olds living in a more heavily polluted area had lower academic achievement compared to those from less impacted areas. “Closer to home, research has also shown that primary school children in communities impacted by the Black Saturday fires experienced greater academic delay up to four years after the fires, compared to those in less impacted areas,” she said.
“We wanted to determine whether similar issues arose in primary and secondary students impacted by the Morwell fire.”
While a clear impact was seen for older students, unlike other studies looking at the academic impact of disaster, this study did not find that academic outcomes for primary school students in the affected area were impacted by the fire. “This may have been because of the additional academic support provided by the Victorian Department of Education and Training in primary schools which was done post fire,” Dr Matthew Carroll, Gippsland lead Investigator from Monash Rural Health said. “Importantly, two primary schools in Morwell were relocated and became targets for additional resources.”
The negative impact of academic results in secondary students – despite secondary school students reporting lower overall event-related distress, may be related to no high schools being relocated in the aftermath of the fire, the authors argue.
The authors argue that the findings of the study have “clear implications for schools regarding the value of attending to academic, as well as trauma care, following critical events,” highlighting the importance of monitoring student’s academic performance following disasters.