Principals told to enforce Covid vaccination mandate on SA school teachers

Two days before the end of the school year, principals were told to enforce the Covid vaccine mandate with teachers who hadn’t had the jab.

School principals have been handed the tough job of telling nearly 500 staff they will forced on to leave without pay if they are not vaccinated against Covid-19.

South Australian Secondary Principals Association chief executive Peter Mader said it was a stressful time for school leaders having to deal with the issue at the same time as winding up the school for the year.

“The timing is not great,” he said on Friday. “Principals are concerned about the impact on people’s lives, you might be dealing with a colleague you’ve worked with for 20 years.”

The order from the Education Department was sent on Wednesday along with the names of staff who had not logged their vaccination status or booked leave.

Principals were told to talk to these staff members, sight evidence of vaccination, organise a leave booking or hand non-complying staff over to the department’s people and culture division to consider their ongoing employment.

Opposition education spokesman Blair Boyer said giving principals just two days before the end of term to hold “those very difficult conversations with staff” was a bad outcome after 22 months of the Covid pandemic.

The government first announced on November 16 that all workers at schools and early childhood centres must be fully vaccinated, or have jabs booked, by December 10, unless medically exempt.

If not vaccinated, they cannot attend work sites.

The ruling will affect teachers and staff who attend work during term time from the start of term 1, on January 31, 2022. For all other staff, the ruling applies from Saturday.

Education Minister John Gardner said most principals had begun discussions with staff from mid-November.

He expected fewer than 500 of the more than 30,000 staff would be affected.

A department spokeswoman said “earlier in the week, almost 96 per cent of the workforce had advised the department of their status, and almost 98 per cent of those had responded positively”.

Principals were also told they must find temporary staff for term 1 to replace those sent on leave or refusing to comply with the mandate.

Australian Education Union SA president Lara Golding was concerned by the short timelines.

“Many schools are already facing staffing complexities due to the shift of year 7 to high school,” she said.

Mr Mader said finding replacement staff would not be easy during the Christmas period.

He expected the number of staff forced on to leave to vary greatly between sites – but he was concerned by one school where the entire IT department would not be back.

Mr Gardner said the department had a strong IT division that could fill any gaps.

“We’re very confident that where there is an issue at a particular school, we’ll be able to support that school to meet the challenges,” he said.

The vaccination mandate applies to government and non-government schools.

Catholic Education SA director Neil McGoran said preliminary data indicated “approximately 99 per cent of the 8000 staff” had complied with the government directive.

The remaining 80 staff were in consultation with principals. This included some seeking medical exemptions and some in the process of booking or getting vaccinations.