From the President

From the President Overcoming the pandemic crisis

By Pat Byrne President

This has been an extraordinary time for everyone. A time when everything we took for granted changed. A time when we have faced challenges individually, collectively as a union and more broadly as a community. This has not been business as usual. We have had to deal with contradictory advice on our safety, had our safety concerns ignored for weeks, and then to deal with almost daily changes to our work arrangements. I thank every teacher and leader for their continued membership. I welcome our new members and hope the support and advocacy you receive will help you throughout your careers, not just in this current crisis. It is amazing to think that back in the first eNews of Term 1 we mentioned in passing the need to follow department advice on how to deal with students returning from overseas trips because of something called Coronavirus. The time since then has been exhausting; days have felt like weeks; every time the implications of one change have been overcome – or even just thought through – another, different, direction has emerged. The establishment of the National Cabinet process to manage the pandemic has meant that all state Premiers and their chief health officers have worked together to ensure, as far as possible, a coordinated response across Australia. From the outset the SSTUWA’s position has been to rely on the medical advice as provided through this process. However, the fact that it wasn’t until 16 April that the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC – the combined health officers from all states and territories) issued specific advice for schools that meant the seeds of anxiety and fear were well and truly sown among the teaching community; for weeks there was not a single mention of staff safety: in the public domain, it was only students’ health that mattered. The public consideration of schools came only after intervention by teacher unions, with the AEU meeting with the Prime Minister, Federal Education Minister and Deputy Chief Medical Officer. By then, there had been immense damage done to morale, confidence and trust, which will not be easily forgotten. The problem has always been the conflict between the medical advice applicable outside the school context and what was possible within schools. Much of the official advice had little or no chance of being actually applied in schools. Most had no soap as a default, never mind hand sanitiser. Social distancing was, and is, impossible to achieve in schools and some areas of buildings and grounds are lucky to get properly cleaned once a term. Towards the end of March, the Prime Minister’s position to keep schools open as usual throughout the next six months was bypassed by states and territories making their own decisions. Instead parents were urged to keep children home unless they were in the vulnerable categories, their parents were essential workers or no other arrangements were possible. The reality was parents had already made their decisions. Many schools were under half full. We had one school in WA that saw one student turn up. With community measures ramping up, parents had seen the contradiction between the key advice to protect their families from the virus and what was happening in real-life in schools. During that time, much behind the scenes work occurred: • Over 3,000 individuals were helped through Member Assist. • Access to COVID-19 leave without having to exhaust all other options first was secured. • Alternative Working Arrangements were sought and achieved for members at higher risk of contracting the virus. • A proper planned process for preparing online delivery was achieved. • Significant funding for additional cleaning was committed. The issue of payment for casual relief teachers is still under discussion with the department. During the final weeks of Term 1, school staff worked tirelessly to produce learning materials that could be delivered in different modes to cater for some face-to-face student attendance with the majority being at home. The government announcement in the middle of school holidays that Year 11 and 12 students would be strongly encouraged to return to school while K-10 would be left to parent choice was unexpected and unwelcome. Following this with an expensive, multi-media advertising campaign directly aimed at getting parents to send their children back to school undermined the claim of parent choice. The SSTUWA is well aware that managing a situation, such as this pandemic, is far from easy – it involves a constant balancing of health, social and economic considerations. The question of schools has been, and continues to be, a vexed one in all states and territories. This is indicative of the complexities that surround the management of large groups of children and adults in an environment such as COVID-19. Unsurprisingly, most of those 7,500 members who responded to our late April survey expressed strong views about their personal safety. However, a significant majority (71 per cent) also indicated their preference for face-to-face teaching if student numbers made it safe to do so. The SSTUWA has secured much for members during this tough time. We have not always prevailed, but we have always put the case robustly and without fear or favour. With your support we will continue to do so.