NSW Government criticised over lack of return-to-school plans for term one
Teachers are fearful of severe staff shortages and cracks quickly forming in the return to classrooms this month, as the NSW Government is criticised over its lack of “concrete plans”.
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“Where the hell is NSW’s back-to-school plan” — that is the question tens of thousands of teachers are asking, as parents and students prepare their school supplies for a return to classrooms.
Despite face-to-face learning promised from day one of term one by NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet — the NSW Education Department’s ‘advice for families’ web page has just one line informing parents and carers that “Term One settings for 2022 are under development with NSW Health”.
Deputy opposition leader and education spokeswoman Prue Car said the NSW Government had failed to “figure out a plan” to return teachers and students to classrooms safely.
“Where the hell is the NSW Government’s plan?” Ms Car asked.
“We are being inundated from concerned parents and teachers wanting to know what they are expected to do with children in a matter of days — but the NSW Government hasn’t announced anything.”
The shadow education spokeswoman said suggestions of fast-tracking student teachers into the classroom, as well as the return of “possibly vulnerable” retired teachers was “risky”.
“Parents and teachers are reasonable enough to know there will be a mixture of testing face-to-face students, isolation and remote learning,” she said.
“We want children back in the classroom, but if there is going to be widespread online learning, parents and teachers deserve to know.”
NSW Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos said teachers were suffering from “immense stress and anxiety” over a lack of concrete plans from the NSW Government.
“We are nearing the final deadline for information,” Mr Gavrielatos told NewsLocal.
“Teachers need to be aware of the final settings for the return to school, which will take place at the end of next week.
“Schools are very complex organisations — there are a lot of things that have to happen for the return of staff and students, you can turn it on like a tap.”
Mr Gavrielatos said suggestions surrounding the use of retired teachers to fill workforce shortages “is a clear sign of complete desperation from the NSW Government”.
“Staff absences will dramatically impact the operation of our schools,” he said.
“We will have the clashing of two ongoing crises, the first being Covid positive teachers isolating and the second being an ongoing issue with staff shortages.
“No matter what the government announce in order to supplement the supply of teachers, we already have a teacher shortage which will continue to be exposed.”
NewsLocal understands some 400 independent school principals were told to expect the same Covid arrangements to Term Four 2021 for 214,000 students across the state.
However, activities including swimming carnival and camps could resume with appropriate safety plans.
“The Association of Independent Schools of NSW recently … outlined the current advice on a range of topics including vaccination, isolation requirements, RAT and PCR testing, mask-wearing, visits to schools and the status of activities such as sport and singing,” Association of Independent Schools NSW chief executive Dr Geoff Newcombe said.
Meanwhile, Catholic Education NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney said he expected no new restrictions to be released as part of the NSW Government 2022 return to school plan.
“There is a great development in that schools will no longer form part of the public health response in the pandemic, we are not going to be held up for special consideration and will be able to operate despite Covid being present in the community,” Mr McInerney said.
“The major operational concern is workforce supply issues, with hundreds of thousands of Australians in isolation, we will need to draw upon a good pool of casual teachers to replace our teaching staff.
“Our schools are ready to go for the start of term one — teachers and students are amazingly resilient and have displayed that over the past two years.”
On Friday, the Premier forecast the release of the schools plan “in the next few days”.
“We are working very closely with the Victorian government and would expect to be announcing our plans in the coming days,” Mr Perrottet said.
“We want to provide certainty to parents, teachers and children that schools will open term one, day one in a safe environment.”
One teacher, who asked not to be named for fear of backlash from her employer, said she was extremely concerned about returning to the classroom while Covid was still so prevalent in the community.
“I’m terrified to be honest,” she told NewsLocal. “It’s going to be chaotic and it’s not fair on the kids or the teachers.”
The experienced primary school teacher said she was tired of the rhetoric around a ‘safe return’ to school.
“I’m so sick of being told it will be safe — there is no way that it can remain safe,” she said. “People just don’t follow the rules, some principals don’t even follow the rules.”
She is worried that those in the wider school community will also be at risk if school returns too quickly and fears there will be more disruption to learning after a year of rolling iterruptions in 2021.
“It’s not just about the students and teachers, it’s about the knock on effect to relatives and more vulnerable people at home who are more likely to become seriously ill if exposed to the virus,” she said.
“Nobody wants to keep doing online learning but at least students will be taught and they won’t constantly be changing classes and teachers.”
NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell did not respond to questions regarding teacher shortages, remote learning, student vaccination status or close-contact exemptions for teachers.
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