Principals say they will not be checking if students are taking the rapid antigen tests (RATs) that schools are scrambling to distribute ahead of the start of term 1 next week.
The principal of Port Macquarie's St Columba Anglican School, Terry Muldoon, said his school would not be enforcing the state government's recommendation for students to be tested twice a week.
"What we'll do is request our families follow the advice from [the health department] and the government, but I don't think we'll have any trouble with our families following the guidelines as long as we have what we need to actually follow the guidelines."
This week the NSW government unveiled its back-to-school plan, which includes the promise of distributing 6 million RATs to 3,000 schools across the state, as well as ventilation equipment.
Students will take home two RATs per week for surveillance testing, with masks mandatory for secondary school students and "encouraged" for primary school students.
Trust-based system
Port Macquarie primary school teacher Amy Harland said "teachers just don't have the time" to be checking test results.
She said without enforcement the strategy was based on trusting families to follow the testing requirements.
NSW Secondary Principals Council president Craig Peterson said the NSW education secretary told him in a meeting on Monday that testing would not be mandatory.
"It would be almost impossible to police a mandated testing program," Mr Peterson said.
"We are strongly encouraging parents, carers, and families to make sure that they do help out and reassure the entire school community that our schools are safe by taking part in that testing regime.
More closures 'inevitable'
Ms Harland, who is also a NSW Teachers Federation representative, said the extra burden on teachers heading back to the classroom would exacerbate the already serious teacher shortage.
"This term is going to highlight just how dire the teaching shortage is," she says.
Mr Muldoon said he would not call the state's back-to-school guidelines a "safety plan".
"COVID will come to the school probably via the students and it will have an impact on the school."
Mr Muldoon said he expected partial shutdowns of schools could be inevitable due to staff shortages, despite the revised direction that schools would not be required to close due to a positive COVID case.
"We already have a small number of staff who have contracted COVID and are currently in isolation, and I think we can assume a number of our families may not be returning because they are already in isolation," he said.
"We do not intend on going into any form of hybrid education, so if we lose a significant number of staff and it has an impact on the viability of our teaching and learning, we would consider some partial shutdowns — for instance, a whole year [level] or a whole cohort if there was a massive spike.
