Queensland teachers ‘thrown under bus’ by school closure stance
Queensland’s teachers’ union has met with the State Government and expects outcomes tomorrow after it demanded schools close Wednesday. The current situation, according to the Teachers’ Professional Association of Queensland, is “too unsafe for our teachers”. VOTE IN OUR POLL
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THE Queensland Teachers’ Union is expecting “outcomes” from the State Government tomorrow after it demanded schools close to students from Wednesday.
President Kevin Bates said the union met with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and several ministers to discuss COVID-19 after its demands this morning.
“They (State Government) are taking it very seriously,” he said.
“I would be expecting outcomes tomorrow.”
Mr Bates said it was a very positive meeting.
The Teachers’ Professional Association of Queensland has written to Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, claiming it’s “simply too unsafe for our teachers to keep schools open”.
“How is it that the social distancing directives apply to all Australians – except our teachers?,” state secretary Jack McGuire wrote.
“Some (schools) still don’t have soap, hand sanitiser or tissues.
“We also know that children do not maintain the same level of hand hygiene as adults, particularly when it is made impossible due to schools not being stocked with hygiene products!
“Schools must shut in order to protect those teachers that are most vulnerable.”
It comes after the union demanded state schools be closed to students from Wednesday, claiming it has “lost confidence” in decision making.
Mr Bates didn’t rule out a strike but insisted the union’s priority was to negotiate.
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The Queensland Greens has backed in the QTU’s position, with Maiwar MP Michael Berkman claiming “enough is enough”.
“It’s impossible to practice social distancing in a crowded classroom,” he said.
“Teachers simply don’t have the protective equipment, cleaning capacity or hand sanitiser they need to follow the health advice.
“Queensland public schools must close to students or go “pupil free” from Wednesday onwards, to give teachers time to get ready to deliver learning online.”
The Queensland branch of the Independent Education Union has called for all schools to close across the country.
“Our union’s primary concern is that schools cannot meet either their legislative Work, Health and Safety obligations or their duty of care to both their employees and students,” the union said.
“Accordingly, the IEU calls for an immediate nationwide end of term for all school students.”
The IEU has called for staff working in remote areas to be provided with immediate travel arrangements.
In a statement online, the union has advised members that at a meeting with QTU executives this morning, “it was clear that Executive has lost confidence in the decision-making around the continued operation of schools and TAFE during the coronavirus pandemic.”
“It beggars belief that schools and TAFE remain open while a whole range of other businesses close,” it reads.
“There is no reference to the safety of teachers, school leaders, and other school employees in discussion of this issue, nor any apparent understanding of the practicality of operating in these education settings (e.g. social distancing).
“Schools continue to operate without promised hygiene and cleaning products.”
Among a raft of measures recommended by the Executive, the union wants the Queensland Government to provide teachers with additional student-free days from when schools close until April 3 (end of term) so they can prepare for term two.
Teachers have said they feel they are being treated as scapegoats and have been “thrown under the bus” by the government’s refusal to close down schools as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk reiterated today that schools will remain open.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced Australia’s toughest measures yet on social distancing, in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus and to allow health and other vital workers to keep performing their jobs.
But he says the medical advice on school closures remains unchanged, pointing repeatedly to evidence that children rarely suffer serious illness if they become infected.
Ms Palaszczuk this morning said people who continued to ignore social distancing were putting their loved ones lives at risk and should check out the devastation coronavirus is reaping overseas.
In another appeal to Queenslanders still packing into cafes and onto beaches this morning, Ms Palaszczuk told young people they were not “invincible” and their behaviour could put their parents and grandparents in the ICU.
Her warning came as she told vulnerable teachers they should consider staying home from work and that she would continually review the current decision to keep Queensland schools open.
National Cabinet last night decided on a midday shutdown of pubs and clubs, gyms, cinemas, indoor sporting venues, indoor entertainment venues because people were ignoring social distancing. Cafes and restaurants will be allowed to do takeaway only.
Schools, shopping centres, bottle shops and beauticians are among the outlets that will remain open.
“I urge everyone to have a look at what is happening around the world because those scenes could be happening here in Australia in a matter of weeks if we don’t take these measures and we act now,” Ms Palaszczuk told ABC Radio.
“So my message to Queenslanders is stay in your suburb, shop locally, to socialise locally, ie with your family and a few friends, but our world is changing and unless we adapt, things are going to go downhill very quickly.”
She said it was appalling to see people packed in cafes, in nightclubs and sitting close at beaches across the weekend.
“Perhaps there are young people out there who thing they are invincible and can I tell you, you’re not,” she said.
“And because you have a great obligation to keep safe and do these measures because if you pass this coronavirus around, it could impact on your elderly parents or you grandparents and they could be the ones that end up in the ICU.
“ … This, oh it’ll be all right – it won’t be. It won’t be if we don’t do it all together.”
Ms Palaszczuk said teachers who were at high risk of coronavirus should speak to their principals and consider staying home from work.
“If you have concerns about your health, if you are in one of those high risk categories, you should speak to your principal and you should get advice on that because we know there are vulnerable people out there, especially the elderly, that should not be in community settings,” she said.
Ms Palaszczuk said she would support an at-risk teacher withdrawing from teaching a class.
She said parents could choose to keep their children at home if they wished at the moment, but they would have to be kept at home by parents and homeschooled, not allowed out in the community.
Ms Palaszczuk said the decision to keep schools open was still the right one.
“That is not to say that the advice will not change in the future so we will take it one step at a time,” she said.
“The health officers will reassess these issues regularly, and if they provide me with any further advice, then I will act immediately on that advice.“
Saturday’s council election is still also going ahead “at this stage”, with the majority of people have already voted, she said.
The Premier’s comments come as anxious Queensland teachers say they’re being treated as scapegoats and have been thrown under the bus by the Government.
Teachers who spoke to AAP on condition of anonymity say the lack of discussion about what might happen to teachers if they are infected by their students has left them feeling abandoned and dispensable.
And they say schools are lacking basic supplies, including soap, making it impossible for students to follow basic hygiene advice about washing hands regularly.
“Personally I am disgusted with the message being sent that we are glorified babysitters so that others can go to work. The message that teachers are sacrificial lambs,” one Gold Coast high school teacher told AAP.
She said the government’s position was riddled with inconsistencies.
“The message (is) that if schools close, kids will congregate in groups in public and increase the spread of the virus – but apparently kids in groups at school do not do this?
“I am an asthmatic so I am in a higher risk category but according to the government I am safe at school because it doesn’t affect kids as badly.”
The high school teacher also said hand sanitiser and wipes were not being issued, and her school’s supply order just hasn’t turned up.
“I often hear students complaining that the soap has run out in their toilets (and) it is impossible to maintain social distancing in classrooms.” Another teacher who works in a primary school in Queensland’s southeast says she can’t be named because “I’ll lose my job”.
She said nothing was being said about teachers who were putting themselves at risk by going to work with “insufficient soap, no towels” and no hope of enacting the government’s rules on indoor social distancing. “Teachers have been thrown under the bus. Teachers are used to making do, and doing what’s best for the kids, but it seems that the government isn’t thinking about us.
“Many teachers are over 50, pregnant, are immunocompromised, or care for parents or their own children.” A week ago, Queensland Teachers Union president Kevin Bates told teachers the only thing to be done was to follow the official advice about school operations. But his comments have hardened in recent days, and he’s been acknowledging the anger and anxiety among teachers statewide.
“You cannot argue that the whole community should shut down, and we should keep our schools open without any change,” he told ABC radio after the prime minister ordered Australia’s primary places of social gathering to close from midday. The QTU Executive is due to meet for an emergency session on Monday morning, to consider the federal government’s social shutdown measures announced on Sunday.
Originally published as Queensland teachers ‘thrown under bus’ by school closure stance
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