This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

Schools will remain open nationally despite escalating government restrictions on other aspects of life such as travel due to the spread of the coronavirus, but new social distancing measures have been announced for schools in New South Wales.

The secretary of the NSW department of education, Mark Scott, said excursions, assemblies, travel, concerts and other events would be cancelled to limit exposure.

“Schools have been a focus of the community and the government as the impacts of the coronavirus have developed globally,” Scott said.

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“From Monday onwards I expect assemblies and substantial gatherings to be cancelled, along with all excursions.”

All interschool arts and sports events have also been cancelled.

But the prime minister, Scott Morrison, said widespread school closures would not take place, despite a raft of other new measures to contain the spread of the virus.

Morrison said the first meeting of the national cabinet on Sunday heard that taking children out of school and putting them into the community may actually hasten the spread of the disease and the disruption to critical workforce like nurses and doctors is too great.

“People are naturally anxious about the issue of schools,” Morrison told reporters in Sydney.

“As the British chief medical officer observed over the last couple of days, the issue of widescale closure of schools, it may be anti-intuitive, but the advice is this could be a very negative thing in terms of impacting on how these [disease] curves operate.

“When you take children out of school and put them back in the broader community, the ability for them to potentially engage with others increases that risk.”

The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, has said school closures are inevitable and state and territory departments are preparing for closure by encouraging schools to prepare online learning resources.

Three schools in Victoria and four in NSW have already closed temporarily but these are referred to as spot closures rather than a widespread shutdown.

Another reason for the delay is that closing schools would mean many healthcare and other essential workers would have to stay home to care for young children, further disrupting the healthcare system.

The future of the schools will be discussed again on Tuesday and Friday, Morrison said.

David Shoebridge (@ShoebridgeMLC) I have had repeated contacts from parents that school bathrooms have no soap. Also that the taps are spring loaded and have to held on with one hand while the other is under it. This makes it impossible to wash hands as directed. This is normal in school student bathrooms.

Senior education sources said there was a split over what was the “opportune public health decision” with tension between health experts over closing schools now or later.

“Given that schools may be closed for months is it too early to close them now when there is only a handful of cases of potential infection,” one source said.

Schools are expected to introduce new social distancing measures this week, including scrapping school assemblies, school plays and concerts and reducing interschool activities.

The senior vice-president of the NSW Teachers’ Federation, Amber Flohm, said teachers had the technology available to deliver online learning but many children could be disadvantaged if they didn’t have access to computers and the internet.

“We are not doctors, we’re teachers, and so the decision will be for them and the department of education will respond accordingly,” Flohm said.

“There will be an equity issue. I would argue a lot of kids don’t have laptops. Children might have mobile phones but if we’re talking about delivering the curriculum, significant resources would need to be provided for teachers and students.”

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Flohm dismissed a claim by the Greens MP David Shoebridge that not all schools provided soap for children to wash their hands.

“It is my understanding that all public schools have soap and access to water in their bathrooms … that’s not what we have heard from teachers.”

The former Australian Medical Association president Kerryn Phelps called for schools to be immediately shut down despite the disruption to medical personnel who would have to care for children.

Phelps, a Sydney GP, also said all children should be tested for a fever when arriving at school if schools are kept open.

“It’s inevitable in the middle of an uncontrolled epidemic that the schools will be closed,” Phelps said. “It’s just a matter of when.

“Unless the government has convincing evidence that the schools can safely be kept open, that should be now.”