Coronavirus Australia: Health boss changes his tune on return to schoolyards

Victorian children could be back at school by May 11 as Chief Health Officer indicates state may scrap its preference for term two home schooling.

Victoria's Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, in Melbourne. Picture: Mark Stewart

Children could be back at school in Victoria as early as May 11, after the state’s Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, indicated the state might scrap its preference for home schooling in term two as the COVID-19 threat dissipates.

Professor Sutton told The Australian he thought the time for ­onsite schooling was near. “I think we’ll all try and move towards ­onsite schooling in coming days because the (coronavirus) risk is clearly diminishing,” he said, ­before clarifying that nothing would change before May 11, when ­Victoria’s state of emergency is due to lapse.

The state has maintained a hardline stance against the majority of its students returning to school, with the Andrews government declaring ahead of the ­beginning of term two last week that “children who can learn from home, must learn from home’’.

Just last week, Professor Sutton advised the Victorian government that “to slow the spread of coronavirus, schools should undertake remote learning for term two”, arguing that having “around a million children and their parents in closer contact with each other, teachers and other support staff has the potential to increase cases of corona­virus not just in schools but across the community”.

On Thursday, however, he ­appeared to relax that stance.

“My advice to government has been a mix of onsite and offsite schooling is appropriate at this stage,’’ he said. “I will review it every day as we progress, and as we head to zero cases that will change my view of the risk and I will provide updated advice at the point that’s appropriate.

“In terms of consistency, I think Queensland and NSW have that same mix of onsite and offsite schooling, so I don’t think we’re so different.’’

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said on Thursday he wanted to see a full transition back to the classroom in all jurisdictions during term two. “The expert medical advice has been consistent since the coronavirus pandemic started — schools are safe to remain open and for teaching to take place in the classroom,” Mr Tehan said.

“Our government does not want COVID-19 to take a year of our children’s education.”

Mr Tehan said schools were a likely discussion point for Friday’s national cabinet meeting, and other states were already moving back to the classroom. “South Australia (on Wednesday) announced that it will go to predominantly classroom teaching as of term two. The Northern Territory has done the same thing, and Western Australia is in a similar mode,” he said.

In NSW, schools will begin a phased reopening from May 11, with children expected to attend one day a week, extending to two days later in the term with a view to being back at school full-time at the start of term three.

WA’s Chief Medical Officer, Andrew Robertson, said on Thursday there was no need for school closures. “With the very low levels of COVID-19 in Western Australia, along with the wider public health strategies now in place, I strongly believe there is no need for school closures in this state,” Dr Robertson said.

“Even when we had higher rates of disease in our state, only 1.5 per cent of cases were school students, all of whom had mild illness and have fully recovered. There also was no spread between students or to teachers.

“I encourage families to feel comfortable about sending their children to school.’’ Nevertheless, confusion remains in Queensland about how many students can attend class, with the education department and teachers’ union at odds over physical distancing required within a classroom.

Parents in Queensland have faced conflicting advice from the education department and teachers union about the number of students allowed to attend classes.

One Brisbane principal this week emailed parents, warning the school would be forced to close if too many students attended and urging non-essential workers to keep their children at home.

Queensland Education Minister Grace Grace said the advice of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee was to encourage students to maintain a distance of 1.5m apart “when entering or leaving a classroom” and “where possible, arrange classroom furniture to leave as much space as possible between students”.

The Queensland Teachers Union has used a different metric, saying the distancing requirements applied within the classroom and all classrooms should be set up to have no more than one student per 4sq m.

An email sent to union members said there would be “strict adherence to the 4sq m rule in all classrooms” and there “must be no more than 12 students with one teacher in a 52sq m classroom, and smaller classroom spaces will have smaller numbers of students”.

The Victorian government continues to be concerned about in-class teaching, with Education Minister James Merlino on Thursday accusing Tim Berryman, principal of a private primary school in Melbourne’s inner north, of being “reckless” for planning a return to lessons next week.

Additional reporting: Paige Taylor