Thousands of teachers across Victoria will be stood down today for not getting a third Covid-19 jab.
Victoria and the Northern Territory are the only states to mandate a booster shot for teachers.
All staff were required to have three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine by April 28, unless they have a medical exemption.
Around 2500 teachers and support staff are expected to lose their jobs due to the rule.
Principals say the permanent loss of thousands of teachers due to vaccination mandates is heightening staff shortages in schools across the state.
Thousands of teachers across Victoria will be stood down today for not getting a third Covid-19 jab mandated by Daniel Andrews’ government
More than 1300 state school teachers and 1300 private teachers had not met the vaccination guidelines as of December 2021, a spokesperson for the Red Union told the Herald Sun.
‘Although some were vaccinated over the holidays, the fact that there is now a requirement for three shots means more teachers are now not meeting the mandate,’ the spokesman said.
The three dose mandate also applies to visitors and volunteers to school grounds, however parents were recently exempt from the requirement.
Remaining teachers have been forced to combine classes in larger spaces to work around staff absences and cancel school excursions.
The Red Union spokesman said there were ‘no excuses’ for a mandated third jab which he said was crippling the workforce.
Victoria’s three dose mandate also applies to visitors and volunteers to school grounds, however parents were recently exempt from the requirement. Pictured: Prep teacher Rachel Gathercole speaks about sanitizer to students at a Melbourne Primary School on May 26, 2020
He said the state had already seen the ‘worst of Omicron’ and there was ‘no evidence staff having a booster would make any difference’.
President of the Victorian Principals’ Association Andrew Dalgleish said schools were left with little option but to let employees without a booster shot go.
However, he said the majority of teachers believe in the merits of vaccinations or took up a third jab because they cannot afford to be unemployed.
The Department of Education states 99.2 per cent of the state’s government teachers had received three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.
A teacher who only received one dose said she was ‘completely devastated’ by her termination.
She spent more than 20 years at a government school teaching VCE but lost her job after deciding not to complete the full vaccination course because she suffered a bad reaction.
The woman said she could not obtain a medical exemption past four weeks.
‘My job is everything and I have so many emotions,’ she said.
Mandated vaccines for teachers and other essential workers has caused staff shortages across Victoria (pictured, attendees of a Freedom Rally in December, 2021)
