With four days of an 11 day term remaining, teachers are crawling to the finishing line. Kids and staff are ratty and tired. Parents in the northern suburbs will be keeping students home for fear of getting the Delta strain and students will be looking forward to a break from the hum drum of school.
It would be nice if teachers were given the same status as other essential workers if we are required to work together in a Covid high risk area with little ones with limited hygeine skills. Given we support those that are essential services (that can't operate without us) makes us essential services too?
With 50% of students at school, whatever is being taught has to either be retaught, create gaps or be revision. It's not really very effective learning.
Mark McGowan is the people's premier. Given the current questioning of why schools are open, it would be expected that he closes them in the next day or two. It wasn't taken well that schools were kept open purely for essential services and not because children require an education or that education is valued by society!
The pressure on some teachers at the moment is considerable and should not be underestimated. Fear of covid has clear and observable effects on teaching staff, especially those that are also caring for elderly and are not vaccinated.
The vaccine rollout is currently slow due to fears of vaccine side effects (both Pfizer and Astra Zenica) and due to availability of vaccines.
The next few days should be an interesting time again. Bring on the break to reset everything again.
