Parents told to call on babysitters to aid remote learning
Parents are being asked if they can hire babysitters or call on grandparents to watch over children during remote learning after some schools denied them access to on-site learning.
Education
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Some schools are asking if parents can hire babysitters to supervise children during remote learning after rejecting their applications for campus access.
Parents have received contradictory messages on whether children could attend, with some students denied access.
A principal told the Herald Sun the Department of Education guidelines were so vague they were being interpreted differently by each school leader “often to the detriment of families”.
A father whose application for his five-year-old son to attend Mentone Primary was refused said the school questioned whether grandparents or a babysitter could watch over the boy.
“They’re forcing us to do things like getting in a babysitter that comes at a cost and increases the risk of bringing someone with coronavirus into the house,” he said.
“That idea that every parent working from home can supervise their children makes no allowance for what working from home looks like … I think the policy isn’t being reasonably applied.”
A Department of Education and Training spokesman said “at no stage did the school in question ever direct the parent to employ a babysitter” — but the father “strongly disagreed”.
After the Herald Sun raised the case, the DET told him his son could attend.
Mentone Primary had three of 432 pupils on-site for the first day of term 2 — an attendance rate of 0.7 of a per cent.
Another parent who works as a nurse said she was denied access to a public primary school in Melbourne’s east.
“A babysitter at home all day is not something I was going to entertain,” she said. “Why would we pay for someone to come in to look after our kids if we can’t afford it?”
The mum said a colleague with the same circumstances in Melbourne’s north sent her kids to school without issue.
Parents Victoria executive officer Gail McHardy said it was tough even before COVID-19 for a lot of families.
“Imagine what it would be like now for families who have lost everything,” she said
DHHS guidelines suggest families can arrange in-home child minding if they must leave the house for a permitted purpose.
A DET spokesman said “if children can learn at home, they must”.
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