Why the schools are staying open
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defended his policy to keep schools in Australia open despite the coronavirus pandemic.
He spoke to Sky News on Wednesday night, saying that Australians need to wake up to the fact that the social distancing measures will be in place for at least six months and could get even tougher.
“There seems to be a view … that somehow you can just turn the tap off for two weeks and all of a sudden we’ve got through the coronavirus, that’s just not true,” he said.
“People who are thinking about it in those terms are really not understanding the scale of what’s happening here.”
“Six months is indicative and I certainly don’t think at this point that it will be any less than that,” he said.
Morrison said that social distancing measures are designed to be sustainable and may be scaled up in the future.
He also said that keeping schools open is a balance of weighing up health advice against the economic impact of the closure.
“What you do, you’ve got to keep doing for the next six months. Shut them down, they won’t open again. And that means your children will miss what is effectively a whole year of their education.
“Now if there’s not a good health reason to do that and risk the child’s education or cause them rather significant economic cost...you should keep the schools open. And that’s why I’ve formed such a strong view on this.”
On Wednesday, governments in Scotland and Wales announced that they would close schools after staff losses due to isolation made continuing as normal unsustainable.
The U.K. government said Wednesday it plans to shut schools in England as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking at the government’s daily press conference on the coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “Looking at where we are now, we think now that we must apply further downward pressure on that upward curve by closing the schools.”
“So, I can announce today … that after schools shut their gates from Friday afternoon, they will remain closed for the vast majority of pupils until further notice.”