Parents told to ‘avoid sun holidays’ for a safe return to school
PARENTS tempted by a foreign holiday may be putting their child’s chances of going back to school in late August or early September at risk.
Families planning a sun break will have to weigh up how it may jeopardise the return to the classroom.
Current public health guidance is to avoid non-essential international travel and anyone arriving in Ireland must self-isolate for 14 days.
The Cabinet is working on a “green list” of countries that may open for non-essential travel, but it has delayed publishing that until July 20 at the earliest after a surge in Covid19 cases linked to travel.
If restrictions are eased after July 20, it could trigger an exodus and while returning travellers from “green list” countries may not have to quarantine for 14 days, travel may still be deemed to be riskier than staying at home.
The trade-off was spelled out by Alan Mongey, president of the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD), who told the Oireachtas Covid-19 Committee that reopening schools “is going to take a community effort”.
He added: “If parents want students returning to school in September, then heading off on a foreign holiday to Portugal or Spain will present significant challenges to schools accepting those students in September.”
Mr Mongey said they were aiming for a “full return” of schools.
The NAPD president and Páiric Clerkin, CEO of the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN), outlined the enormous logistical and public health challenges they face in reopening schools safely.
Their list includes extra funding for cleaning and health and safety supplies, additional staffing to oversee the implementation of health guidelines, and substitute teachers and special needs assistants (SNAs) to cover absences and support principals.
Mr Clerkin did not address the holiday issue at the committee, but he later commented that “as a society, we all need to look at what we all need to do, not just holidays, but how we socialise. We are all in this together and we have to make good choices”.
He said that the reopening of schools was “doable” provided they received the necessary resources. Among the key issues for the IPPN is a national panel of substitute teachers.
“We can’t have a classroom without a teacher. At the moment we have a situation where the first day of absence is not covered. We must have a panel that we can call on,” Mr Clerkin said.
He said schools also needed a panel of substitute SNAs from which they could draw. This would avoid a situation where schools had to seek individual vetting of each SNA.
Meanwhile, research from Trinity College Dublin shows that the lack of face-to-face contact has had a major negative impact on teaching and learning during the lockdown.
While teachers and students may have adapted to the use of technology itself, what was often missing was the important interaction that happens in the classroom environment. One in five post–primary teachers did not foster collaboration and more than half reported a decrease in collaboration.
Overall, teachers reported a lack of interest from students, a lack of support from home and limited access to devices as the main barriers to teaching during the lockdown. These issues were particularly prevalent for schools in disadvantaged areas.