Daniel Andrews has revealed the plan to get Victorian school students and teachers back into classrooms on ‘day one, term one’.
Victorian students and staff will be asked to test themselves twice a week, and teachers will be required to get their third dose, in order to keep case numbers under control in schools.
As part of the plan to keep students in classrooms from “day one, term one”, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said testing and air-purifiers would be crucial to keeping schools open and students on campus.
The state government will also call on inactive or retired teachers to rejoin the system to combat staff shortages.
Mr Andrews said it was inevitable there would be a surge in Covid-19 cases, but insisted reopening schools was a priority.
Victoria and NSW authorities have worked closely together to get students back in school from January 31.
Both states will require students and teachers to use rapid antigen tests at home twice weekly.
The federal government will split the cost with states opting to test students and teachers.
Fourteen million tests will be delivered to schools and early childhood centres over the coming weeks – 6.6 million of which will be delivered in time for the first week.
Mr Andrews said testing would be in place for at least the first four weeks of term, aimed at finding as “many cases as we can” and shutting down chains of transmission.
“The logic goes like this – we have to get schools back. Once they get back, given how much Omicron is in the community, there will be cases,” he said.
“Free rapid tests means we will find more of those cases than if we were not testing, we will then be able – through isolation – to reduce the chance of transmission.
“We are doing everything we can to make sure schools are as safe as they can be, but open. “
Air purifiers will also play a major role in protecting Victorian school students and staff, with the final 10,000 units set to be delivered to facilities within the next week.
These air purifiers will be focused on “high risk settings” like music rooms, staff rooms, indoor canteens, sick bays and rooms with poor ventilation.
Schools are also being asked to apply for shade sail funding, in order to encourage outdoor learning “as much as practically possible”.
In addition, school teachers and staff will be required to have had their third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by January 25 if they are eligible, or within three months and two weeks of their second dose.
Children-sized surgical masks and N95 masks will also be delivered to schools.
Masks will be mandatory for students in grade three and above when indoors, and for staff other than when they are communicating or teaching from the front of a classroom where a mask may impeded their ability to teach.
Deputy Premier and Education Minister James Merlino said mask wearing was “recommended” for students in prep to grade two but “obviously we understand the commonsense challenge of the very little ones wearing a mask”.
A pool of inactive teachers, education support staff, retired principals and surge administrative support staff has also be launched, which will be available for schools to access when Covid-19 impacts their workforce.
Classrooms could also be combined “temporarily” to deal with staff shortages.
Mr Merlino said the priority was the “social and emotional wellbeing of our kids”.
“We want them back face-to-face, in front of their teachers, with their peers,” he said.
“This back-to-school plan provides parents and students and teachers with the comfort and the confidence knowing that we are doing everything we can, even through it might look a bit different, in some circumstances, we are doing everything we can to do this in a Covid-safe way to get our kids back to school.”
Authorities are also urging parents to come forward and get their children vaccinated before school begins.
More than 29 per cent of children aged 5-11 have now had one dose of the vaccine, and the government is working to ensure “all children” in this cohort have access to two doses by the end of term one.
“There are 66,000 appointments available for children aged 5 to 11 in state-run centers over the next 30 days, and many more through primary care,” Mr Andrews said.
Royal Melbourne Hospital paediatrician Sharon Goldfeld said this school year would fee “different”.
“And parents are probably feeling a little bit anxious, and that’s pretty normal, as are kids,” Professor Goldfeld said.
“It will be a little bit numbly, and it is definitely not going to be perfect. There will be really interesting times ahead.
“It is a really wonderful day where we can just plan and go ahead. I think that probably for the first time during the pandemic, where we know that children will go to school on day one.”
Victoria recorded 13,091 new Covid-19 cases and 14 deaths on Sunday.
Chief health officer Brett Sutton said Victoria’s Omicron peak was “likely behind us”.
There are 1002 people with Covid-19 in hospital – 120 of whom are in intensive care. There are 44 people on ventilators.
Mr Andrews said it was hard to know how many cases would emerge from schools reopening, but the system was prepared.
“Having school back in day one of term one is absolutely critical. It will be difficult but the benefits of that far outweigh any other policy approach,” he said.
“We cannot have kids at home anymore. Because Victorian have got vaccinated.”
Originally published as Victoria’s back-to-school plan outlined ahead of term one
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