Teachers and principals should be cut "a bit of slack" as schools prepare to partially reopen under Alert Level 3, the Finance Minister said today.
When asked how teachers would manage the extra workload of online, face-to-face and cleaning required once the country lifts its Level 4 lockdown on April 27, Grant Robertson told media the Ministry of Education was working "very closely" with the sector.
"Clearly, it will be different," Mr Robertson said. "Needing to manage, for example, online teaching and in-classroom teaching will take a bit of getting used to."
"Let's make sure we give all of us a bit of slack, including teachers and principals, as this starts to happen next week, so that we can make sure we get it right."
He said schools would have staff for cleaning and that principals would be working with those staff to ensure schools are "working as they are intended".
"I've heard reports of principals measuring out the distance between desks, where bubbles of children will go," he said.
"We all recognise these are very unique circumstances - we will all give a degree of latitude to both teachers and also their students as how to make sure this works best."
1 NEWS revealed details of how many schools would look under Alert Level 3, which included staggered start times, 30,000 litres of hand sanitiser being delivered to schools, with most Auckland schools expecting fewer than 20 students.
It comes as a petition urging schools and early childhood centres to remain closed under Level 3 reached 40,400 as of 2pm today.
National's Simon Bridges told media last week the Government's approach around education had been "poorly communicated".
"Teachers and mums and dads more often than not, don’t feel ready to go back to school," he said.
"We don’t want to force that."
SHARE ME