The Nationals’ Melina Bath has raised community concerns in state parliament over the repeated closure of Emerald Secondary College on high fire danger days, calling on the Allan Government to fast track overdue fire resilience upgrades.
Emerald Secondary College is regularly forced to close under the Allan Government’s education policy, which treats high fire danger days the same as catastrophic days, despite very different risk thresholds.
Ms Bath said continuity of learning must be a priority and schools should remain open on high fire danger days where it is safe to do so.
“The Allan Government’s policy fails to recognise the significant differences between fire danger ratings,” Ms Bath said.
“A rating of High means ‘be ready to act’, while Catastrophic means ‘for your survival, leave a bushfire risk area’.
“Bushfire risk must always be taken seriously, but closing schools on days of high fire danger is unnecessarily disruptive and harms student outcomes.
“In term one alone, Emerald Secondary College was closed for five days based on fire danger ratings, resulting in a 14 per cent loss of face to face learning and significant disruption for working families.
“These recent forced closures actually exceeded the government’s own absenteeism benchmark.”
Emerald Secondary College is classified as a Bushfire at Risk Register Category 2 school, however targeted upgrades such as improved vegetation management, increased defensible space, fire resistant buildings and strengthened shelter in place facilities would reduce its risk and limit closures.
Ms Bath said the Allan Government must focus on practical measures to keep schools in bushfire prone areas open while ensuring the safety of staff and students.
“Ad hoc remote learning is not a substitute for classroom education and disproportionately disadvantages students and families.
“Other local schools facing similar challenges include Cockatoo Primary School and Beaconsfield Upper Primary School.
“All schools should be safe and kept open – the Allan Government cannot continue forcing students outside the tram tracks to keep losing valuable days of face to face learning.”
