The fight for education staff to get priority coronavirus vaccinations

The IEU is amongst unions pushing for education workers to be prioritised on the vaccination list, saying they are in 'essential high-contact workplaces'. 

Madonna King, writing for Crikey, put it succinctly: 'Teachers are on the front line — but not for the vaccine queue'. 

The Victorian government recently fast-tracked administration of the COVID-19 vaccine for all aged care and disability workers after a COVID-19 outbreak in an aged care home.  

The IEU said school staff should also be prioritised on the vaccination list. 

'It’s increasingly frustrating (particularly when looking back at the promises made by our federal government six months ago) that there has still not been an effective rollout of vaccinations for school staff and others in essential high-contact workplaces. 

'We know that vaccinations won’t eradicate this problem alone, but a better managed rollout with clear industry priorities would have spared Victoria the pain of the current lockdown. 

'Education unions (here and around the world) have been calling for school staff to be prioritised in the vaccination schedule. With IEU input, the ACTU made a clear and detailed submission to the federal government calling for this back in March. 

'We are still waiting.' 

For those who can get vaccinated, getting time off work to get jabbed can be difficult. The IEU lobbied has successfully lobbied employers in Victorian Catholic education to provide paid additional leave for staff to get vaccinated. 

All four Victorian Dioceses now offer additional leave or have encouraged principals to offer it where staff face difficulty booking their vaccinations outside of school hours. 

Australian Education Union Victorian branch president Meredith Peace said education staff are 'frontline workers'. 

"Ensuring these workers are fully vaccinated will help alleviate the disruptions that occur through lockdowns and school closures, ensuring children and students can continue to learn and thrive." 

Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said Victoria was facing a 'constrained supply' of Pfizer, the recommended vaccine for those under 50 years of age, which made it difficult to 'have special groups vaccinated first'.  

Over 59 per cent of teachers in Victoria are under the age of 40, and therefore currently ineligible for vaccination. 

In South Africa, which also experienced significant vaccination shortages and delays, teachers, cleaners and other support staff at 25,000 public schools are being singled out for 500,000 vaccines at dedicated sites for two weeks in June.  

'The 'dedicated education sector intervention' would make teachers the second special group to receive vaccines, after healthcare workers,' reported Business Insider South Africa. 

In Thailand, health officials are ramping up their efforts to vaccinate teachers in Bangkok and its surrounding provinces ahead of the start of the new school term, The Bangkok Post reported. 

Up to 40,000 teachers and support staff in Bangkok would 'need to be vaccinated before schools reopened' on 15 June. 

Primary school teacher and IEU Catholic Primary Council President Maree Shields agrees that schools should return to face-to-face learning in classrooms as soon as it was safe, but she would like to be vaccinated first. 

'I've been a little bit worried about being exposed to it at work," she told the ABC program 7.30. 

'The school that I worked at last year … there were a number of cases within our school that did contract it during the lockdown period. 

'I do think being vaccinated is important. We can't control where our colleagues go, we can't control where the families of our students go and who they come into contact with, and there's always that unknown element.' 

Ms Shields, 40, is eligible for a vaccination, but is having trouble getting through on the hotline to make an appointment.  

'Making it a priority would be really helpful. And it would mean that the students wouldn't miss out on as much of that face-to-face learning time because we would be able to stay at school on a more consistent basis.' 

Writing for The Conversation, paediatricians Archana Koirala and Margie Danchin and vaccine specialist Asha Bowen said it was vital to find ways to continue face-to-face learning in times of low community transmission. 

'One important way to do this is to prioritise teachers and other school staff for COVID vaccines. 

'Vaccinating all school staff would reassure those who have concerns about being at work in a school environment during a lockdown, and potentially lower the risk of spread in schools even further. This would increase the confidence in schools remaining open.' 

AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe told Nine it was 'proper that vulnerable groups have been prioritised for vaccination'. 

'However, the federal government must now make the timetable for vaccinating education staff clear.' 

In March, she told The Educator that at the height of the pandemic, the federal government had acknowledged that teachers and support personnel working in schools and early childhood settings played 'a critical role in keeping society functioning'. 

“With the movement of millions of students, teachers and parents on a daily basis, priority access to vaccination would reduce the risk of transmission and provide significant health, social and economic advantages for children, the education workforce and the broader community". 

In March, as Australians celebrated the belated roll-out of vaccinations for 'priority groups', teachers’ unions pointed out that school staff, considered “essential workers” at the outbreak of the pandemic, should be included among the priority groups receiving the vaccine. 

Phase One priority groups included quarantine and border workers, frontline health staff and aged care and disability care staff and residents. The second part of phase one covered defence force workers, firefighters, police, meat-processing workers, and emergency services. 

'This is disappointing because it’s clear that teachers are an essential service. It’s bewildering that we haven’t been included in the priority groups,” said Berwick Lodge Primary School principal, Henry Grossek. 

'When asked to explain why teachers were not considered priority workers, a spokesperson for the Department of Health said, 'any change in priority populations would be based on the advice of independent medical experts such as the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation,' ' The Educator reported. 

The Victorian Health Department site reads: 'People who work with children are at increased risk of vaccine-preventable diseases. People working with children should have the recommended vaccines'.  

That message is pre-COVID and covered illnesses usually less dangerous and infectious than COVID-19.