NSW education officials have ‘no records’ of how many teachers have been vaccinated

NSW education officials have made a shock admission as Sydney students prepare to return to the classroom.

NSW education officials have no idea how many teachers have been vaccinated even as preparations continue to bring year 12 students back to Sydney classrooms.

Authorities have also revealed they have no clue how many individuals will be out and about as a result of classrooms reopening.

The admissions came a day after the NSW chief health officer said she’d provided clear advice to the government that it would be unsafe to have students moving around the city.

The chief of the teachers’ union said the push for face-to-face lessons for year 12 students, planned to begin August 16, was “premature and ill-conceived”.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell appeared via videolink. Picture: NSW parliament via NCA NewsWire

NSW Teachers’ Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos told a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday he had been shocked to learn of the plan through the media.

“No one wants students to come back more than teachers, after their parents, of course – but we want them back when it’s safe,” Mr Gavrielatos said.

Greater Sydney went into lockdown to halt a coronavirus outbreak shortly before the school term began in July, meaning many NSW students have been forced to take their classes from home.

But education officials have begun planning for a return to school for some students.

Children who live or study in hotspots will be excluded from the plan, which has been designed to “provide opportunities for essential curriculum delivery, wellbeing support and check-ins for HSC students”.

The education department has seconded four consultants from KPMG to provide “program management office support”, Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said.

At least 6500 year 12 students have been vaccinated in the past three days, and students who needed help to travel to the Qudos Bank Arena to get jabbed will be driven there in taxis.

More than half of eligible students in Sydney hotspot areas have booked in to be vaccinated.

But despite the vaccination push, there is no way to know how many teaches have been jabbed, education department secretary Georgina Harrison said.

Education department secretary Georgina Harrisson gave testimony to the committee. Picture: NSW Parliament via NCA NewsWire

“At this stage we are not tracking vaccinations of teachers,” Ms Harrison said.

“The appointment booking process doesn’t capture that information and enable us to do that.

“And so we can, you know, we continue to encourage all of our staff to go and get vaccinated at the first opportunity they have.”

Mr Gavrielatos said he learned about the plan to have year 12 students back in classrooms via a tweet from a journalist on July 27, the night before Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the plan.

However Ms Mitchell and Ms Harrison had a slightly different recollection.

“I'm aware that the stakeholders were certainly told of the decision prior to the announcement being made public by the premier,” Ms Mitchell said.

Ms Mitchell said she gave the union a call “either the evening before or the morning of” the announcement.

The NSW chief health officer said she had advised the government it would be unsafe to return to classroom lessons next week.

“Clearly with the (daily infection) numbers so high, my advice was that it was unsafe to have anything that increased movement and mobility,” Kerry Chant told the committee.

While she said that she understood Covid risks had to be “balanced against mental health and other issues”, she told the government the risk was ”too great”.

“I provided clear advice that the risk was too great anywhere in the affected areas,” Dr Chant said.

NSW Teachers’ Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos told a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday he had been “shocked” to learn of the plan through the media. Picture: NSW Parliament via NCA NewsWire

Ms Harrison said the education department worked with Dr Chant’s team to be able to bring back students in a safe and limited way.

“We, in conjunction with the public health team, feel we’ve got the balance right between those mobility issues that you raise, and the benefits to our students of having the opportunity to connect with their teachers,” she said.

But she wasn’t sure how many individuals would be leaving their homes and moving around the city as a result.

“I don't have specific numbers, it will depend, vastly on individual and local school plans and the way they intend to bring those students back in those very contained and controlled measures,” Ms Harrison said.

She said transport officials had been engaged to provide extra bus services to bring children to school.

“We are putting in place every sensible and practical measure that we can to support our year 12 students to get back to school in some form.”

For the rest of students learning from home, there will be no return to classrooms until at least August 28.

Asked when parents would find out when they could expect to send their younger children back to classrooms, Ms Mitchell said: “We’ll be in a position to tell parents what to expect within the coming weeks.”