industry & reform
Risks and challenges
The NSW Teachers Federation president on the challenges of returning to school .
Angelo Gavrielatos interviewed by Wade Zaglas
Before NSW embarked on a staggered approach back to the classroom , Education Review spoke to the president of the New South Wales Teachers Federation , Angelo Gavrielatos , about how well prepared the public sector is for the final school term .
The NSWTF president spoke about a range of risks and challenges schools and teachers are facing , including the fact that some teachers will not be fully vaccinated by the time classes begin . This is despite pleas for teachers to be given priority vaccinations from the beginning of the pandemic . The fact that many children will not be fully vaccinated is another concern for school communities and teachers who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons .
Gavrielatos also lamented the timetabling issues teachers will likely face when trying to deliver both face-to-face lessons for some students and online lessons for others . He also criticised the department for not auditing classroom ventilation months ago , saying they “ dragged the chain , week after week after week ”, as well as not considering enough risk mitigation measures .
ER : What are your thoughts on the staggered approach to returning to school ? AG : The former premier Gladys Berejiklian said she wanted to provide certainty for parents and students , but the only thing that we ’ re certain about is that there is no certainty . Such is the nature of the pandemic and such is the politicisation of the health advice that should be guiding this .
The situation in New South Wales is quite varied , depending on what part we ’ re talking about . There are many parts of regional New South Wales where we ’ ve had face to face teaching , certainly in the last week of last term and from the beginning of this term . Of course , that changes as soon as there is a case and an area goes back into lockdown , where the students and teachers therefore revert back to remote teaching and learning .
There ’ s a lot of stress caused by this chopping and changing , and one thing that ’ s certainly not very well appreciated by policy makers is that when it comes to the organisation of schools , to timetabling and programming , it ’ s not something as easy as turning a tap on and off . It requires a lot of work .
The staggered return back to face-toface teaching is not without risks and it ’ s certainly not without challenges . In terms of the challenges , the obvious challenges are associated with the staggered return . For example , if year 12 is back and year 11 is back , to timetable for that is not easy because whilst those students are back on site with the face to face teaching and learning , the teacher has other challenges ongoing , not least of which are remote teaching and learning for the remaining timetable load of a teacher .
It ’ s also challenging in the primary setting when kindergarten and year one is back because we can ’ t assume that the students ’ teachers will be the ones back onsite at that stage because from 18 October only teachers who have been double vaccinated can return to site .
The rate of vaccination for teachers is higher than the general public . The date on which the mandate becomes effective is 8 November . Bringing forward the staggered return , and the need for teachers that return to be double vaccinated presents challenges as mentioned .
There ’ s also risks related to the fact that we still find ourselves in the middle of the pandemic with a very high caseload and a situation where this virus is highly contagious , and the case rates amongst children remain very , very high . That 12 to 15-year-olds are getting the vaccination at a very steady and rapid rate is great news , but they won ’ t have been double vaccinated by the time they get back to school .
The fact there is no vaccine for under 12 year olds means there still are significant risks since it ’ s highly contagious and students can spread the virus to other students and unvaccinated adults .
Months ago we called on the government to conduct a ventilation audit in all schools because we know from the evidence overseas , whether it be
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