Mr. Páiric Clerkin:

The Professional Development Service for Teachers, PDST, gives great support to schools with these issues. What happened in schools in March and April was somewhat revolutionary. Over a three-week period, they moved from face-to-face interaction to a blended online learning platform.

The primary school setting is complicated. Working with infants is very different from working with fifth or sixth class pupils, for example, so challenges arise. Schools and teachers have upskilled over a short period and delivered a successful programme to children. From a primary school point of view, however, it is critical that we get children back into school. We cannot replace the face-to-face interaction that happens at school level. The blended online approach is a second class model as far as we are concerned. We need to get children back into school.