Education Minister James Merlino says the government has no plan to enforce restrictions about children going to school in term two, preferring to trust parents to follow the “crystal clear” advice that students should stay home if they can.
Yet principals worry that as the term goes on, more and more parents will send their children to school once they discover that managing remote learning is difficult and the teachers' union says its members should not feel compelled to work on campus rather than remotely.
Victorian schools are set to open on Wednesday with coronavirus restrictions meaning that only the children of essential workers will be allowed to attend in person.
Only those workers who cannot work from home should send their children to school, Mr Merlino said, with most students set to be taught remotely, at least until the end of term two.
“It’s about common sense," he told The Age in an exclusive interview on Friday.
“The Chief Health Officer’s advice is it’s better not to have lists of who is in and who is out but a really simple message: if you can work from home, your children must learn from home.”
The union for government school principals has raised fears that as term two drags on, parents will increasingly send their children to school “when they are not coping with them at home, in the face of a prolonged shutdown”.
“So, while schools are kept open for the children of essential workers or for vulnerable children and limited staff are available to monitor them in the school, this might soon change, unless monitored carefully and restrictions enforced,” Australian Principals’ Federation president Julie Podbury told her members this week.
Meredith Peace, Victorian branch president of the Australian Education Union, said most teachers will also work from home, other than volunteers required to supervise at schools.
"There is no compulsion and we have been clear with our members to say you shouldn’t be compelled to be at school if you’d prefer to work at home," Ms Peace said.
Mr Merlino said the unprecedented remote schooling of one million students would be a case of trial and error, and that technology would sometimes fail but parents should believe that schools were going to provide a quality education.
“What we are asking parents to do is trust their schools, trust their teachers, because there will be some things that will work and not work, including technology,” he said.
“The guidance is there, the resources and support are there but there will be things that we will need to tweak along the way, inevitably.”
The minister said it was possible the closure of schools would be extended into term three, which starts in July, but that would depend on the success of efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
“Our hope is that we can return to full on-site normal days at school as soon as possible but this is a long fight for our community, our state, our country and the world,” Mr Merlino said.
The Deputy Premier acknowledged there was apprehension in the community about how a full term of home schooling would play out, including whether children’s education would suffer and how heavily it would disrupt parents’ ability to work.
Mr Merlino asked for patience from parents who will be working from home while their children are studying.
“I’ve got three kids, two in primary school, one in high school and I am as apprehensive as any parent, any teacher,” Mr Merlino said.
“I’m spending a lot of time at home, my wife Meagan is a high school teacher so she’ll be teaching remotely as well … We are talking about that, we are thinking about, where are we going to set up our three kids?”
Children who go to school will be supervised by teachers but will be taught remotely just like their peers at home.
Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan issued a binding legal directive to non-government schools on Thursday to open their doors for any students who could not learn from home, tying the directive to Commonwealth funding.
Mr Merlino said he expected all schools – government, Catholic and independent – to be open for those who need them to be.
“My expectation is that all schools in Victoria follow the advice of the chief health officer and that no funding should be at risk if they are following the advice,” he said.
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