On 9 April 2020 NSW public schools began the school year's Easter holidays.
By that time school attendance was thought to be as low as 30 per cent of all enrolled students in state schools.
Even the Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had withdrawn his children from a NSW private school sometime between 9 March and 2 April 2020 and moved his family into The Lodge in Canberra.
Yet he continues to harangue the states and teachers for the distance learning policy put in place in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
These teacher expressed her frustration at his attitude and comments.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 17 April 2020, p.20:
I find Morrison's comments that parents are doing home schooling offensive. What they are doing is assisting their children in understanding detailed, highly formatted lessons that are linked to the curriculum in a way to make it interesting for students. This is not home schooling as parents did not plan and link the work to the curriculum. As a teacher I spent 12-hour days combing the internet for interesting activities and tying it all to the curriculum, as well as running video classrooms, answering student questions and emails. When students were still having difficulties I was calling home to speak to the children to see how to fix the problems. That's not child minding: that's delivering quality remote learning for our students. Give us the protective wear, cleaning products and non-contact thermometers to screen children and teachers will be happy to go back to classrooms.
Jennie Kidd, Campbelltown
Morrison continues to insist that public schools are safe places for children to be during a pandemic.Coronavirus: PM won't send his kids to school while it's just childminding @ScottMorrisonMP stating the online learning we, as a profession, have been busting our nuts preparing & delivering for a month, amounts to childminding is a total insult https://t.co/fyc9n9jfxD— Vicki Lodge (@Vickster762) April 16, 2020
NSW schools that have no hot running water, frequently no additional cleaning equipment and a limited ability to impose social distancing.
Under those conditions teachers were rightly worried about the risk to their own health and that of their pupils.
On 17 April 2020 there were est. 121 COVID-19 cases in NSW where individuals' ages ranged between 0 and 19 years.
This is an excerpt from a NSW Dept of Health media release dated 9 April 2020 at which point est. 112 individuals in that age range were infected with COVID-19 in the state:
This is another excerpt from a NSW Dept of Health media release dated 4 April 2020, at which point est.101 individuals in that age range were infected with COVID-19 in the state:
