(1) Minimal supervision does not mean students miss out on a lesson. Sometimes when casual teachers are unable to be sourced at the last minute, including as a result of COVID-19 or other illness, classes are merged to ensure continuity of education for students.
(a) As of 9 June 2022, there were 25 instances of minimal supervision.
(b) As of 9 June 2022, there were 1 496 occasions when classes have been merged.
On Tuesday 23 August 2022, the Minister provided the following additional answer:
(1)
(a)-(b) The answer to Question on Notice 8901 cannot be relied upon with any certainty. It is not possible for the Department to confirm the accuracy of the numbers previously provided to the member. There is no central system for the Department to capture this information from a school or a number of schools in a uniform or consistent way. Schools do not have a single definition for the terms “minimal supervision” or “merged class”.