Enough is enough! How long does it take for those in charge to take notice and become proactive? This isn’t the 60’s! More has to be done to ensure that teachers and students aren’t subjected to asbestos exposure.
Reading about Queensland’s problems with asbestos debris in their classrooms makes me very upset.
Education Queensland has been unable to give a statewide figure for the number of children who have their names on asbestos-related school registers, stating the information is not kept centrally.”
The department has also revealed 98 temporary closures of classrooms, playgrounds and other state school sites were recorded in about six weeks recently comparable to the rate of closures for all of last year.
If you’re concerned like me, have no fear because Education Queensland’s acting deputy director-general Graham Atkins has come up with the worst attempt at spin one could ever imagine.
“Principals and staff have a heightened awareness about managing asbestos-containing materials,” Mr Atkins said.
“This (awareness) can account for the high number of incident alerts recently, which is always a good thing, as our staff are trained to be extra-cautious,” Mr Atkins said.
Doesn’t that make you feel better?
Whilst you and I might have been indifferent to Mr. Atkins’ s spin, the Queensland Association of State School Principals president Norm Hart obviously thought it was gold.
“… Norm Hart said managing asbestos risk had become a growing part of a principal’s role and recent training would be behind the incident spike.
“It is obviously frustrating that we have buildings that have asbestos in them and that we have to manage it, but we are not prepared to put safety second,” he said.
So if you are a concerned parent, rest assured, your child’s teacher and principal are experts at spotting asbestos. Forget about teaching literacy or numeracy. No, our teachers are trained to spot potential carcinogens in the classroom. Feel better now?
The Courier-Mail earlier revealed Department of Education and Training staff had made more than 400 workers compensation notification claims since 2005 after potentially being exposed to asbestos.
EQ figures show 18 DET staff have had WorkCover asbestos-related claims accepted since 2002. Seven were for asbestos-related illnesses, seven were for psychological injury related to exposure and four were for possible exposure.
But it’s alright. We have it under control. We’ve trained our principal’s ….
Topical Teaching 
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