Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have a number of questions and I would appreciate it if the witnesses could take them down because one question might fit into another in a response. I have been talking to school principals, parents associations and boards of management. As I am on a board of management, I know that boards are finding it difficult to get answers to many of the questions that are being asked. The witnesses may have been liaising with the Department to see if they can get answers on the capitation grant, especially for the rural schools, including those in west Cork. Will that grant be raised in some way going forward? Will there be a new specific cleaning grant? Some schools are only being cleaned twice or three times per week.

In this situation it is serious because these schools will have to put forward further and stronger cleaning programmes. Obviously, the secretaries have always been the forgotten heroes in the school. What is the assistance in respect of secretaries? Will this change?

Childhood is short. Children only get one chance at an education. Students of primary and secondary education need to return to school in September. Blended learning is not an ideal situation. The suggestion of a two and a half day school week is simply unworkable for the majority of families. We need only look at what happened to our front-line workers. They had to use up their holidays and days off to take care of the people of Ireland. If both parents are front-line workers, then most of their holidays are gone. There were no crèches because of Covid-19 and no other family members were allowed to care for the children. No grandparents were allowed to care for the children because of Covid-19. We need to get our children back to school in the safest possible manner.

Has the Department liaised with school principals on plans for students sitting the junior and leaving certificate examinations in 2021? Almost certainly they will not get the same education as students who sat the exams in previous years or as students should get in normal years. They will be starting out at a disadvantage, especially by missing most of the second half of this year. Is there any plan in place for students? Can the school principals elaborate on this?

Has any plan been put in place for boarding schools? Is boarding still a service that can be offered? Have the relevant schools been given a roadmap for reopening? Are there different plans for boarding students? Some students board for five days and go home to their families at the weekend. Others board for seven nights and only go home for mid-term or during the school holidays.

As part of the junior certificate for 2021 students were supposed to complete their classroom based assessment for this year. However, because of Covid-19 they could not. Is some procedure being put in place for these students to complete their classroom based assessments? They are not supposed to do these assessments at home or through distance or online learning. I would appreciate if school principals could answer some or all of these questions.