Highlights
- Grace Labucana worked as a casual educator in Metro Melbourne.
- She saw a reduction in her work hours during the Stage 3 lockdown in Victoria.
- She shares educators feel guilty having to turn away children during Stage 4 lockdown, but centres have to follow what the government says.
"We made a commitment to care for and educate children, but then we have to tell parents we can't. It makes us feel like we are going against what we promised to do. It feels like we aren't doing our job."
As COVID-19 changed the landscape of the childcare industry, Victorian educator Grace Labucana saw both the dwindling numbers of children in centres and the significant reduction of her previous work hours.
Grace sought support from her family to cope financially Source: Grace Labucana
Stage 3
"I began working as a casual educator for a chain of childcare centres last year. When the pandemic happened and we went to Stage 3 lockdown, my hours suddenly got reduced. Luckily, I lived with my siblings then and they helped me cope financially."
Grace recently moved to Traralgon where she works at another centre; but before moving, she persisted working in several centres around Metro Melbourne when Stage 3 was enforced.
"The centres I worked for before started with maybe 50-60 kids a day, then that went down to 30-40."
"The centres I worked for before started with maybe 50-60 kids a day, then that went down to 30-40." Source: cottonbro from Pexels
"This is an industry that presupposes educators sacrifice pay and time. The lockdown required us to prepare and plan online learning and classes [such as yoga] for children who weren't attending care. Sometimes we would get paid extra, but sometimes not; but at least, during Stage 3, kids were still allowed to attend care."
Stage 4
With Stage 4 lockdown now in place in Victoria, only the vulnerable and children of permitted workers are allowed to go to centres.
Still in touch with her former colleagues, Grace shares that only around 20 children are now attending the centre she used to work for.
"It's quite sad - it's hard to turn away kids. Parents are just given suggestions regarding activities they can do at home. I don't know how my former colleagues are coping, but I do know they are there for each other. When I was still working with them, we made it a point to have constant communication with families online or over the phone."
"Parents are just given suggestions regarding activities they can do at home." Source: Sharon McCutcheon from Pexels
"In as much as educators want to help care for the kids, they can't. The penalty for breaching restrictions is huge."
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