Victorian state school students from prep to year 10 in lockdown zones will return to remote learning from July 20 as coronavirus cases continue to climb.
Key points:
- The Premier says returning to home learning in metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire will stop movement around the community
- Specialist school and VCE students will return to the classroom as normal from next week
- Those returning to school will not be required to wear masks in the classroom
The state's total number of active cases stands at 1,484 and the newest cases include hospital workers and public housing residents.
Premier Daniel Andrews acknowledged the return to home learning would be challenging for many parents but said there was "simply no alternative".
"We can't have the best part of 700,000 students as well as parents moving to and from school, moving around the community, as if there wasn't a stay-at-home order, as if there wasn't a lockdown," he said.
Prep to year 10 students who attend school in Metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire will go back to home learning until at least August 19, Mr Andrews said.
Year 11 and 12 students, year 10 students doing VCE subjects and children at specialist schools will resume face-to-face learning for term three from tomorrow.
Schools outside the restricted areas will operate normally, and students will be able to attend regardless of where they live.
While the Government's decision only directly affects state schools, it is expected most private schools will follow suit.
Independent Schools Victoria, representing more than 200 member schools, has encouraged its members to follow the advice of the Chief Health Officer.
Free kindergarten for eligible families and extra support
Children of essential workers and vulnerable children will have the option to return to school, as they did during the last lockdown.
This time, parents of children with a disability will also have the option of sending their kids to school for face-to-face learning when required.
"It could be five days a week, it could be two days a week, it could be half a day a week, to provide a bit of respite," Education Minister James Merlino said.
Mr Merlino said students with a disability who did not receive the Program for Students with Disabilities funding would be eligible.
"There are tens of thousands of kids who have additional needs that at the moment don't receive that funding," he said.
"So we've got the broadest step possible — all students with a disability, parents will have the option of sending their child to school for on-site learning."
The Government will also offer extra funding to eligible kindergarten services in the locked-down areas to let them offer free kinder to children during term three.
Other resources available include video or phone counselling for secondary school students.
"These settings, learning the lessons from the past, but keeping more than 700,000 students and their parents and carers not moving around metropolitan Melbourne or the Mitchell Shire will go a long way to the goal that we all have," he said.
'Irresponsible' to have kids going back, Chief Health Officer says
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said students returning to school next week would not be required to wear masks, but would be welcome to wear them if they wanted to.
"Teaching is pretty tough with a mask on," he said.
"They require those facial expressions; they require the ability to be understood and heard clearly."
During the last lockdown, Victoria's child safety watchdog raised concerns about how some of the state's most vulnerable students would access education.
Professor Sutton said reintroducing home learning was a difficult decision to make, but the pandemic had not yet reached its peak and authorities were throwing "absolutely everything at it".
"It would have been irresponsible of me to have gone into a phase where we might have had increasing numbers day on day, to have kids going back to school."
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