Principals say they must get enough funding to deal with Covid-19 threat

PRINCIPALS say they must get enough funding to ensure schools can re-open safely in the autumn in the context of the ongoing Covid-19 threat.

While the Department of Education has promised additional resources, it is still in talks with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) on the detail.

Funding is among the issues that will be raised by representatives of primary and post-primary principals when they address members of the Oireachtas Covid-19 committee today.

With a strict infection prevention and control regime demanded in the country’s 4,000 schools in the new school year, boards of management face higher, or new, expenses under cost headings such as cleaning, the provision of hand sanitisers and, where necessary, protective equipment.

National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) president Alan Mongey will also tell the committee that the department must fund the appointment of Covid-19 assistants in each school to implement and monitor the health guidelines.

The NAPD, which represents leadership in more than 700 post-primary schools, wants to see a full return of all students in late August/ early September, “provided it is safe, practical, and possible to do so”.

The NAPD president, who is also principal of a 1,000-plus pupil school, will also tell the committee that while Covid19 has brought about unprecedented challenges, there were “key learnings” to be made from it in terms of education reforms.

The association believes it has set a precedent for rolling out blended learning, Leaving Cert reform and school digitalisation, which while previously may have been regarded as “unworkable” were now “absolutely necessary”.

Funding is also among the key concerns of the Irish Primary Principals’ Network (IPPN) whose CEO Páraic Clerkin will tell the committee that the additional resources must be provided to schools up front.

He will say that special schools face huge challenges and, as well as requiring extra personnel and protective equipment, will need training on the intimate care challenges they will face and resources to limit the sharing of materials in or between classes.

The Irish Primary Principals’ Network is also seeking commitments to substitute cover for every teacher absence and more support for teaching principals.

Children wash their hands at a school in Britain after they reopened there. School principals here are concerned about the cost of measures that will need to be introduced to combat Covid-19.