One day out from the start of the school year, the Education Department is yet to figure out what arrangements will be put in place to keep teachers who have chronic illnesses or are pregnant safe from the spread of COVID-19, the SA teachers’ union says.
The SA Education Department has come under fire for claiming that air purifiers do not reduce the amount of CO2 in classrooms or improve air quality as reasons for not rolling them out as a school COVID safety measure, before changing its mind and buying thousands of the machines.
The head of the Education Department has issued a plea to the SA teachers’ union to call off a threatened strike when school returns next Wednesday, saying it would be “divisive in staffrooms” and had already caused “community criticism of educators”.
The majority of South Australian teachers want the State Government to push back the start of the school year by two weeks, their union says, amid concerns about Reception and Year 7 students potentially starting primary and secondary schools for the first time online.