‘LEAVE SCHOOL WINDOWS OPEN’
Principals vent about Scally’s idea to stop virus spreading
CALLS for windows to be left open in classrooms and students to wear their coats to help limit the spread of Covid-19 have been described as ‘utterly ridiculous’ by school principals.
Public health expert Dr Gabriel Scally warned yesterday that steamy classrooms would be a breeding ground for the virus and said windows and doors will have to be left open.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Sarah McInerney, he said that ventilation was important – even if it meant children wearing woolly jumpers and coats indoors to keep warm. There was nothing wrong with children going to school wearing ‘jumpers, jerseys and coats’ if it kept them safe, he said.
‘Getting the air moving could be the best thing to do,’ the prominent physician told listeners.
Mary Slattery, principal of Ursuline Secondary School in Thurles, Co. Tipperary told the Irish Daily Mail that the proposal is the ‘stuff of nonsense’.
‘We just need a common-sense approach,’ she said.
She added: ‘If the weather is fine you’d have the windows open anyway, but the idea of a class being frozen to death in the middle of winter is ridiculous.
‘But our biggest concern at the moment is teachers and students being expected to wear masks all day. We accept that it would be wise to cover your face in the corridors, but in classrooms it seems very impractical.’ She added: ‘We would have loved to have the road map much earlier, but at this stage the Department [of Education] needs to be a bit more focused and practical in their proposals.’
Ms Slattery added that her biggest concern at the moment was secondary school pupils being expected to wear face masks throughout the day.
‘It makes sense for pupils to cover their face while moving about the school, but to make them wear masks within the classroom all day seems very impractical,’ she said.
Michael Horan, principal of St Brendan’s NS in Cork, said that the lack of ventilation in schools was due to a historical underfunding in the education sector.
‘You’ll be hit with every bug going in a classroom if there’s no ventilation, which is why I can see the need to keep the windows open,’ he said.
‘But the reason why many schools are so hard to ventilate and keep safe during this pandemic is due to years of underfunding and underdevelopment.
‘The Department is essentially trying to put a Band-Aid over a gash that needs stitches.’
Mr Horan said that he has to be confident that schools will reopen in September as there is no Plan B. He said: ‘I can’t say for certain that schools will reopen, especially looking at the rise in cases each day, but we just have to prepare as much as possible in the event that they are.
‘We’ve made so many adjustments over the past few months, but it’s the Department’s call at the end of the day.’
Niamh Murray, principal of Kilmacanogue NS in Co Wicklow, told the Irish Daily Mail that leaving windows open to ventilate a classroom was important, but couldn’t be done if it caused discomfort to her pupils.
‘If you open a window and everyone is freezing then that’s not very reasonable,’ she said. ‘But if you can open one or two windows without making anyone cold then I can’t see the harm in it.’
She added: ‘Another way we’re helping to ventilate our classrooms is by letting our pupils outside every hour to play for ten or 15 minutes. When they’re doing this, our teachers can keep their windows and doors open which will decrease the chance of this virus remaining inside.’
‘Getting the air moving is best’
‘It’s just a Band-Aid over a gash’