Coronavirus crisis: Online learning ‘not that easy’ WA teachers warn

“Huge assumptions” are being made about the ease of setting up online learning, according to the State School Teachers’ Union of Western Australia (SSTUWA), which is pushing for schools to close immediately to give educators more time to prepare.

It comes as all Victorian schools are set to shut from today — brought forward from Thursday — to help contain the spread of coronavirus.

SSTUWA president Pat Byrne told West Live host Jenna Clarke that teachers are currently “flying blind” and do not feel their concerns are being addressed by authorities.

She said the situation has been made worse by the lack of consistency with states and territories adopting different positions on school closures.

“Having a pupil-free arrangement for example for the next few weeks or bringing the holidays forward actually relieves the anxiety, it relieves the pressure and it gives the system time to think about how we’re going to deal with this on a longer term basis,” she said.

“Last week we had probably 30 per cent of students out of school. This week I imagine it will be higher because the Premier has said there will be no penalty now … that makes it really difficult for teachers then to carry on and provide a program as usual.”

Ms Byrne also said there is a “great danger that people think it’s very simple to go online”.

“You can’t just present the same lesson that you do on a face to face basis in an online context,” she said.

“Then there’s the question of availability … kids will have access to devices (at school) but they don’t have equitable access once they’re home.

“We make huge assumptions when we say we’ll just all move to online learning - it’s just not that easy.”

Medical professionals also believe their fears are not being taken seriously by state and federal governments.

Australian Nursing Federation boss Mark Olson told Jenna that nurses are worried they will not have enough protective gear to treat COVID-19 patients when an expected surge hits in the next few weeks.

Mr Olson published a letter in The West Australian today which warned leaders against following in the footsteps of Italy, which has become the epicentre for coronavirus after overtaking China’s death toll.

He also said some members from the private sector could not understand why they were not being hit with the same restrictions being applied to the public sector.

“Those members are concerned that valuable resources including the nurses themselves and doctors who perform (elective) surgery are being wasted at this time, or not conserved… so that it’s there when we need it,” Mr Olson said.

“They’re also asking why aren’t the government taking over the private hospitals or at least coordinating the management so the resources will be there when they need it.

“We’ve just seen the government intervene quite heavily in the private sector over the last couple of days closing bars and clubs.. and we don’t see why private hospitals should be any different.”

Mr Olson also said he was fielding calls from exhausted nurses who say shopping centres are closed by the time they finish 12-hour shifts.

“For our essential service workers, it would be really nice if they had a time when they could go shopping,” he said.

Coles announced this morning it will dedicate two “community hour” shopping periods per week to emergency services and healthcare workers on the frontline.