The Gutwein Government has no strategy to keep students and teaching staff safe from COVID-19, today releasing a winter “plan” which maintains a status quo which is not working.
With more than 100 schools across Tasmania experiencing COVID outbreaks, Education Minister Roger Jaensch is taking teachers and families for fools by claiming he is “building on a successful start to the school year” with his Term Two plan when he knows the return to school has been anything but.
Mr Jaensch has no strategy other than to turn up the dial on heaters in classrooms, continuing with a woefully misguided plan that has seen hundreds of children and teaching staff forced into isolation.
There is no plan to increase or access relief teaching staff, no plan to increase safety precautions to limit exposure to the virus and no plan to ensure schools can stay open and kids can keep learning.
It’s now abundantly clear that not only was there was no plan for the inevitability of COVID entering schools when the government opened the borders to the virus, it’s even clearer there is no plan going forward.
The Liberals continue to sit on their hands and do nothing despite serious economic and social consequences for education disruptions.
Tasmania already lags the nation in education outcomes and now with poor management revealed for a COVID-safe winter our students will fall further behind.
Josh Willie MLC
Shadow Minister for Education and Early Years
