NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has confirmed that face-to-face education is set to gradually return from May 11th — week three of term two. This comes after a positive indication that coronavirus cases across the state have begun to plateau.
The government are set to take a “staggered” approach to the reintroduction of schooling. Students will return to school one day a week, with the government hopeful that they will return in full-time capacity by term three.
“Initially, it will just be a day a week and then progressively two days and then we hope by the end of term two we will be in a position to have students going back to school in a full-time capacity by term three,” Berejiklian confirmed.
“There will be flexibility and discretion on a school level as to how they implement this,” she said.
“We want them to make sure they are having about a quarter of students on campus each day, but how they break that group up will be a matter for them.”
Ms Berejiklian has emphasised that parents should be liable for monitoring their children for coronavirus symptoms — encouraging them to keep their children at home even if they only show signs of mild illness.
“Normally if your child has a sniffle you might advise them to put on a uniform and go to school, but at the moment it’s the opposite,” she said.
The premier also revealed that teachers will be given a priority for testing in an attempt to curve the transmission between students and teachers.
“Teachers will be given a priority for testing, if you’re a teacher you can be tested whenever you’d like,” she said.
This follows the news that over three-quarters of NSW residents infected with coronavirus have since recovered. NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant has confirmed that 1,755 people who were initially diagnosed with the virus during the height of the pandemic are no longer showing symptoms.
