Vogue: My break in the Caribbean did NOT breach restrictions on Covid
However, thousands of parents will teach at home alone
THOUSANDS of parents will be left to their own home- schooling devices today, despite the fact that schools were warned in November to prepare to teach remotely in case of further lockdowns.
The Department of Education even provided €100million to fund this work so that the schools and teachers would be ready.
This was followed up later by a circular from the department on the need for engagement between teachers and pupils during ‘live or recorded video lessons’.
However, the Irish Daily Mail has learned that many families will have to take care of their own home schooling as this has not happened in many schools.
The circular said that the school authorities must have in place from today an online
€100m given to fund the service
platform through which teachers can engage with students as the country moves back to remote learning.
Since April, just after the beginning of the Covid- 19 pandemic, the department has made the €100million in funding available to schools across the country in order to facilitate the move to remote learning, should the need arise.
That need arises from today, as schools remain closed for the next three weeks, at least.
As a result of the increasing daily Covid-19 case numbers, the Government decided last week that schools would remain shut for the rest of the month.
Plans to have sixth- year students attend school three out of five days a week were also curtailed after push-back from teacher unions.
This means that from today teachers and pupils will have to revert back to home-schooling measures, first adopted last year when the country went into the initial lockdown.
The circular from the department was sent to all managerial authorities of recognised primary, secondary, community and comprehensive schools as well as chief executives of Education and Training Boards at the start of November last year.
It stated: ‘The Minister for Education requests all schools to immediately act to put in place appropriate contingency measures to ensure that schools are prepared to support teaching and learning in the event of a partial or full closure of schools from public health advice.
‘ The events surrounding
Covid- 19 and the enforced closure of schools to pupils/students has highlighted the absolute necessity for schools to be prepared to support continuity of teaching and learning.
‘ To facilitate effective approaches to supporting learning in a remote environment, schools are advised to also develop and adopt a model for learning that will support continuity of education regardless of school closure or inability of a class group or a pupil/student to attend school,’ it said.
According to the circular, the minimum requirements f or schools was to establish a communication and learning platform for ‘engagement between teachers and pupils/students ( i ncluding classroom work assignment and return, feedback and assessment).’
In a statement yesterday, a spokesman for the department said they provided schools a ‘suite of materials’ to enable them to mediate the curriculum safely for all pupils and students in the context of Covid-19. In April, after the country went into the first lockdown, funding of €50million was issued.