NSW border rules block students and teachers from campuses
Schools are calling for border restrictions to be overhauled, as thousands of Victorian students may be blocked from attending NSW campuses next week.
THOUSANDS of Victorian students and hundreds of school staff may be blocked from attending school next week, as the NSW education border permits expire and families and teachers are forced to reapply for exemptions to attend campuses.
The Association of Independent Schools of NSW said there were about 1100 students and 250 staff who travelled from Victoria to NSW every school day before the first border restrictions came into effect, with many of those living in regional areas outside the narrow border zone.
Moama Anglican Grammar principal Carmel Spry said about 100 children out of their 650-student enrolment were likely to be affected by changes due to come into effect on August 21, and the school was working hard to continue delivering quality teaching despite the extreme disruption.
“We are looking at a system where our staff will be split; some will be delivering online and some will be face-to-face. To try to do both all the time – l think that workload would be too much,” Ms Spry said.
“We’d like to try to do both, because we don’t want to put that burden on families who can still send children to school and still work. It is quite an onerous task to work from home and keep a couple of children focused on school work.
“We are still working through fine details of that plan.”
The NSW border restrictions tightened on August 7, and granted a 14-day reprieve for day-school visitor permit holders.
Those permits will expire this Friday, August 21.
Any student or staff who lives outside the narrow border zone must apply for an exemption to cross the border for education after that date.
“We have been told our Year 11 and 12 students would be given exemptions,” Ms Spry said. “They have two weeks of trial exams for HSC, then four weeks of school, then they are finished.
“We don’t want a scenario where there is a group of Year 12s who can’t come to school and see teachers for the last weeks before they go into final exams for HSC.”
Trinity Anglican College principal Justin Beckett also raised concerns about the August 21 permit expiry date.
The Albury school’s enrolment includes students who live in Victoria outside the border zone.
“Even though there are zero cases of COVID-19 in Albury-Wodonga, three of our most qualified HSC teachers and three of our brightest students will be unable to attend school face-to-face from next week to sit their HSC Trial exams,” Mr Beckett said in a media statement.
“In Parramatta today, and other Sydney hot spots, Year 12 students are attending their final weeks of Year 12 schooling. In Albury, where there are no COVID cases, HSC teachers and students are road-blocked.
“We need the NSW Government to be reasonable. If there are zero cases on the border, then every Year 12 teacher and student must be able to get to school.”
A NSW Education Department spokesman said “We are working with NSW Health and other agencies to ensure the continued education, safety and wellbeing of students is met as NSW responds to the COVID-19 pandemic. We will continue updating the impacted schools as the situation develops.”
NATIONWIDE NEGLECT OF BOARDING STUDENTS
The Australian Boarding Schools Association has voiced concerns about the effect of wider border restrictions on more than 20,000 boarding students who travel interstate for access to education.
ABSA chief executive Richard Stokes said state premiers and health officers were giving little thought to boarding families when making decisions about travel rules.
“During the last border closure in Queensland, the Chief Health Officer and Premier were able to offer special arrangements for those boarders, and their families, to be able to return to school, but for this border closure there has been no consideration given to our boarding students,” he said in a statement.
“In 2020, 69 per cent of the 21,000 boarders in Australia are students from the country, with an additional 18 per cent of boarders identifying as Indigenous and 10 per cent of boarders coming from overseas. These are not the elite, they are the everyday students needing boarding schools to be able to get an education.”
His call echoes concerns raised last week by Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association NSW branch president Claire Butler, who called for policy writers to consider the unique situation of rural families before mandating students travel through major airports to return home from boarding school.
VICTORIA’S TERM 4 STILL UNCERTAIN
In Victoria, the Department of Education is not revealing any plans about what teaching and learning will look like in Term 4.
Figures released by the state government last week revealed 69 outbreaks had been associated with schools in Victoria since June 1.
An outbreak is defined by the DHHS to be at least two epidemiologically linked cases who do not live in the same household.
An education department spokesman said decisions about on-site schooling, including health and safety measures, were being made based on advice of the Chief Health Officer.
“We understand that this is disruptive however, the safety of all Victorians must come first as we try to slow the spread of coronavirus,” the spokesman said.
The department said DHHS advice suggested the vast majority of cases of coronavirus observed in schools involved the individual acquiring the virus in the community.
Remote and flexible learning is in place across the whole state. The Chief Health Officer advised the move was designed to significantly reduce the movement of nearly a million students, their parents and carers, and staff.
The department also said the decision to move all VCE students to remote learning was so all students could be assessed under the same conditions.
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