By Shelby Brooks
A Berwick school principal has said he fears not enough children will be vaccinated upon the return to school later this month.
Berwick Lodge Primary School principal Henry Grossek said families were already expressing anxieties about sending their children back to school, particularly those who have children with compromised health.
“I think we’re going to see some very anxious staff and parents,” he told Star News.
Mr Grossek anticipates some parents will delay sending their children back to onsite learning due to fears classmates could present to school with Covid-19.
“I know some people won’t be sending their kids back right away,” Mr Grossek said.
“One of the big dilemmas we’ve got is that teachers can’t do remote learning and onsite learning at the same time – someone is going to miss out in that situation.”
Directives on whether students will need to use rapid antigen tests (RATs) to be allowed onsite are expected from the Department of Education and State and Federal governments in the coming days.
“There are so many question marks around the availability of RATs and around how the program will be implemented,” Mr Grossek said.
“All of that, plus with so few children having even one dose, I don’t see how when we come back to school in a week and a bit, we’re going to be anywhere near the goal of minimising the risks of kids and staff getting Covid-19 and avoid major disruptions to learning.”
Mr Grossek believes the only answer is to have more children vaccinated.
“We’re going to come back to school and many students are not going to even have one dose of the vaccine,” he said.
“The consequence of that is that quite a few children are going to present with Covid-19, and that’s going to be extremely disruptive for families and will disrupt the child’s education.
“The chances of staff being infected even though they are double vaxxed is significant also.”
More in next week’s paper.
