Loading Premier Daniel Andrews said the exemptions were not a "hard and fast rule" and urged parents to use common sense. He cited the example of a special-needs student who simply could not learn from home. "If you can learn from home, you must learn from home," Mr Andrews said on Tuesday morning. The Department of Education will loan more than 6000 laptops and tablets to public students who don't have access to digital devices, and deliver free SIM cards and dongles to children, with priority given to students in bushfire-affected areas, senior secondary students and families who cannot afford an internet connection at home. In some cases, students will be given their coursework on USB sticks or provided with paper copies.

"We've got about a million students enrolled in government and non-government schools – we cannot have a million students moving around the Victorian community every day," Mr Andrews said. "All that will do is spread the virus and undermine the really significant progress that we've made, notwithstanding the fact that we're in this for the long haul. "I'd love to be able to paint a really clear picture of exactly every milestone in Year 12 and give you an end date when this crisis will end, sadly I can't do that." Independent and private schools are expected to follow the lead of government schools.

Education Minister James Merlino said if the virus was still not brought under control, the government would enact Plan B, which will mean students' ATAR scores, a university admissions ranking, are based on results from their SACs, the General Admissions Test and their work in Year 11. Mr Merlino said the department was also considering a "compressed" end of year exam schedule – including shortening each exam – or holding exams early next year. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video VCE and VCAL students will do most of their theory-based work in terms two and three and practical coursework in term four, Mr Merlino said. "My message to students is: yes, it's going to be different but focus on your studies. Your principals, your teachers and staff have done outstanding work preparing for what was always going to be highly likely that we would move into flexible and remote learning," Mr Merlino said.

The government is "working furiously" to ensure vulnerable children who rely on food provided at school through the breakfast and lunch clubs programs are supported, and school bus services will continue operating. School canteens across the state will be closed, and non-teaching staff have been reassured they will not be stood down. Education Minister James Merlino assured Year 12 students there would not be a 'Year 13'. Credit:AAP Special needs schools will be allowed to continue operating but Mr Merlino urged staff to wash their hands frequently and encourage students to do so as well. "There will be children with a disability where its simply too hard to study in a home-based environment; in that case, they will study from school," he said.

"These will be decisions that parents will make. It is silly to have hard and fast lists of who’s in and who’s out." Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said if Victoria could continue successfully suppressing coronavirus cases, he "would hope" students could return to school for terms three and four. Although Victorian health authorities are "optimistic" about the stabilisation of coronavirus cases in the state, Dr Sutton described it as a "fragile plateau". "If there is a failure to maintain physical distancing, if we can't keep control of numbers for this very infectious virus - that is now killing someone in New York every 2.5 minutes ... it remains the case that if we have to keep schools remote, then I'm sure we'll do," Dr Sutton said.