Canberra teachers are preparing to carry out remote learning for an indefinite period of time, with the ACT Education Minister flagging it will still be some time before face-to-face classes resume.
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As ACT public schools get set to begin learning from home on Friday following the Covid lockdown, Yvette Berry said any return to the classroom would be dependent on virus case numbers and health orders.
She said even if restrictions were eased immediately, in-person learning would not resume right away.
"We are prepared to go as long as we need to do, but it depends on the public health situation in the community and the advice of the chief health officer," Ms Berry said on Thursday.
"It takes time to transition and getting organised for children to be back in classroom takes a bit of management and coordination, and it depends on how the community is going.
"It would mean a gradual return."
While public school students will return to learning from Friday, uncertainty still clouds the ACT Scaling Test for senior students, which was meant to take place on August 31 and September 1.
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The test is likely to be postponed, but a new date has not yet been set.
Ms Berry said the delay with the test would likely cause anxiety for year 12 students.
"The ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies and the Education Directorate are working through the technicalities we are facing due to the lockdown, and I don't have any information for everyone at the moment," she said.
"We're working to understand ... on how the tests will be conducted and we have meetings to discuss what they will look like, but we will have information soon."
The return of learning from home comes one week after the start of lockdown in the ACT.
The Education Minister said the large gap between the beginning of lockdown and the resumption of online learning was for teachers to prepare coursework and for laptops and supplies to be distributed.
Catholic and independent schools in the ACT have been carrying out learning from home this week since the beginning of the lockdown.
It's estimated more than 12,600 Chromebooks were distributed to students, along with 520 internet dongles.
"We had another spanner in the works with some schools being in quarantine and teachers have had to develop remote education resources, but have also had to manage their own family lives and children to be tested as well," Ms Berry said.
"We took extra precautions to make sure we had extra time and I'm glad we did."
Ms Berry while guidelines were sent out to parents on how lessons would be structured during online learning, she did not expect parents to make sure all tasks were completed.
"As much as we can prepare for this, we always knew it was never easy, particularly for families at different schools and in different year groups," she said.
"Parents are not the teacher, so take it easy on yourself. You may not always be able to do all the tasks in the timeframe, so do what you can and take it easy."
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