Lockdowns mean all kids will be playing catch-up
EMER O’NEILL first became a nationally recognised figure for her work highlighting racism in Irish society.
But her day job as an educator has introduced her to a younger nationwide audience.
In January, she joined the RTÉ Home School Hub, a service designed to help parents through the stresses of homeschooling during lockdown.
The effects of lockdowns on Irish society are constantly discussed, but against a background in which no one can know what the long-term effects of a shuttered society will be.
That is one of the most unsettling effects of Covid19, and in her work as a PE teacher and in her life as a mother, O’Neill is acutely aware of the ramifications of lockdown life.
Children have gone months without organised training or games. Even casual physical exercise is complicated by social distancing, travel restrictions and other public health necessities.
The need to suppress a virus that has killed more than 4,000 people in this country trumps all, but it is necessary, too, to acknowledge the effects of the sacrifices people have made.
And the impact on children in particular is an issue Emer O’Neill is keen to address. ‘I do think the lockdowns are going to have a massive effect on the kids, especially the young kids,’ she says.
‘My son would have been playing football three times a week, and now he’s not.
‘I’m trying to motivate him to get out and do some skills and train.
‘I know his skill level should be much higher now. He’s not being coached. And he had just started matches. They played two matches and then lockdown.
‘So missing all those opportunities is huge.
‘It goes for everything, for every kid. We will have some making up to do with the kids.’
As a secondary school teacher, O’Neill is well acquainted already with the effects on children of insufficient exposure to physical education and sport generally, at primary level.
‘The lack of PE in primary schools has such a massive knock-on effect to secondary schools.
‘I have a curriculum I have to follow and it’s based on the next step from the PE curriculum for primary schools.
‘But I get kids that can’t catch, that can’t throw, that literally don’t know how to run. When I should be working on more advanced things, I’m nearly going back into the primary school curriculum trying to get kids back up to speed.’
These are issues that will inevitably be exacerbated by months of closed schools.