Thirty NT teachers forced to go into mandatory quarantine after visiting Victoria and NSW

THIRTY Territory teachers will undergo mandatory quarantine after travelling to Victoria and New South Wales before and during the school holidays.

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THIRTY Territory teachers will undergo mandatory quarantine after travelling to Victoria and New South Wales before and during the school holidays.

A Department of Education spokeswoman said the number equated to about 1.5 per cent of all teachers in the Territory.

She said some teachers were already in quarantine and others were preparing to return to the Territory.

“If the need arises, principals will be supported to ensure that they have the relevant resources to continue to deliver face-to-face learning to every student from Term 3, 2020,” she said.

The spokeswoman said all education staff who travelled to a coronavirus hotspot would be put into mandatory supervised quarantine for 14 days at their own expense.

However, a spokesman for Chief Minister Michael Gunner said financial exemptions would be considered on a case-by-case basis by the Office of the Chief Health Officer.

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Australian Education Union NT president Jarvis Ryan said the quarantine rules were excessive, especially for educators struggling financially.

“I think the decision to just unilaterally impose 14 days mandatory quarantine at own cost in Howard Springs, I think it’s excessive,” he said.

“We’ve got someone who was out on Elcho Island for the whole first semester. He’s been in country Victoria. He’s now facing two weeks of mandatory quarantine, $2500 at his own expense plus being on unpaid leave just to get back to the Territory to start teaching kids again.

“You can put in place protection protocols that don’t impose such a cost to individuals, particularly people who are Territory residents and who are performing what we would deem to be essential work in the NT.”

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Mr Ryan said the NT Government’s rules could also harm future educator recruitment.

“We have so many remote staff, particularly who don’t have a home in the Northern Territory outside of government supplied housing, in a remote community and they rely on those breaks to go home to their more permanent residence interstate,” he said.

“If these restrictions continue on for months, years, who knows how long, then it becomes a more difficult proposition to recruit those teachers to the Northern Territory.”