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SHARNAE HOPE
Morrinsville College principal John Inger is criticizing the government’s decision to reopen schools at Alert Level 3.
The head of the old Jacinda Ardern university is criticizing the government’s decision to allow the return of schools, saying that children may die from Covid-19.
Morrinsville College Principal John Inger expressed strong concern about the decision to open Tier 3 schools in a three-page newsletter.
With the resurgence of cases abroad, such as in Japan and Singapore, Inger said he was concerned about him and his staff.
“It seems to me that the Government wants to transmit to teachers across the country the responsibility of caring for children, in our cases, ninth and tenth year students, so that parents can return to their places of work.
“This ignores the potential disaster this could cause, with our schools possibly becoming incubators for the virus.”
Children could get Covid-19 and pass it on when there are no symptoms and could die, Inger said.
POOL
Dr. Ashley Bloomfield and Minister of Education Chris Hipkins provide an update on the response to the coronavirus.
While most of those who returned would be children of essential workers, Inger said parents who wanted to send their children back who didn’t want to explain could be because their children are “a pain in the neck.”
If they were children of essential workers, he said they were more likely to bring Covid-19 to school from their bubble.
Staff on his senior leadership team who had children at school would not “consider putting them at risk by sending them back to school” and Inger strongly recommended that parents keep their children at home for as long as needed.
Dr. Ashley Bloomfield’s official advice was that Covid-19 did not infect or affect children and adolescents in the same way as adults and they did not tend to transmit the virus to adults, but Inger questioned it.
“This represents current thinking aimed at securing people rather than concrete facts, and it certainly does not compare with what we have observed with the Marist school group in Auckland of around 90 people, teachers and students, where many staff members and students have been infecting each other and their families. ”
He also said that it is now generally accepted that those who became infected may not always develop immunity to the virus, which was a real concern.
“And young people around the world have been dying from Covid: they are less likely to die than adults, so don’t think that your child could not die if infected.”
The guidelines they had received meant that if parents decided to send their children to school, they were likely to be required to stay in one room all day every day with a small group of other students, who were not their friends within their normal classes.
“Students should agree to stay within a school bubble of no more than 10 students and physically stay at least two meters away from their friends in the classroom.
“We have been told at this stage that students are expected to remain with their bubble members and that they will certainly be required to remain at least two meters from their friends and bubble buddies when they are outside.”
He asked how the Ministry expected bus drivers to ensure that students were kept two meters away.
“We also don’t know whether the buses will be able to function normally, as many of Greenline Motors’ drivers are over 70 years old and therefore at great risk and required to remain in their homes.”
While parents could hope that they would require level three warning rules to be obeyed, he said they could not guarantee that social distancing would be maintained due to the skeleton staff they would work with.
They hoped that the Ministry of Education would confirm their expectations for schools, after which they would develop a plan to allow what they anticipated that only a few students would return to school, Inger said.
From a staffing standpoint, Inger said 30 employees had underlying health problems that would make them very sick or lose their lives if they became infected, or if the people in their bubble were at the same risk.
“It is not fair to expect our teachers to provide both in-class and online learning during level three, particularly if they also have children or other family members at home who they need to care for during the day.
“This workload expectation is too high, so in our opinion, there will be no in-class classes at this time for those students whose parents choose to send their children to school.”
