Teachers,
other school staff and students have been left to the mercy of the latest wave
of the COVID pandemic with no genuine plan to deal with outbreaks as Term Three
starts across Tasmania next week.
With vaccination
rates among five-to-11-year-olds stagnating with just over 50 per cent
receiving their second dose- due in no small part to poor messaging by the
government – and the government foreshadowing unvaccinated teachers will be
allowed into classrooms, it is inevitable COVID outbreaks will occur across
Tasmanians schools.
But at
the same time, Education Minister Roger Jaensch has done only the bare minimum
to ensure safety.
The fact is we are experiencing a devastating new
wave of the pandemic. The fact is Tasmania is seeing more than 1,500 new
diagnosis each day. The fact is we are seeing the number of Tasmanians in
hospital at levels not seen since the first COVID wave and we are experiencing,
sadly, deaths on a daily basis.
There
has been no genuine thought by Mr Jaensch into how students will catch up on
learning missed in the first half of the year when absenteeism rates were
significant.
There
has been no effort for safety provision for vulnerable students or students
with a disability.
With the most recent Tasmanian NAPLAN
results showing 28.5 per cent of Year Nines cannot read above the level
expected to engage in the wider curriculum, 41.5 per cent could not express
themselves in written form and 23.4 per cent were not numerate, Mr Jaensch has
not planned for the serious implications of new COVID disruptions.
The
Rockliff-Ferguson Government’s COVID preparedness plan has been an absolute
failure and they need to assure school communities this weekend about what safety
measures – if any – have been undertaken.
Josh Willie MLC
Shadow Minister for Education and Early Years
