Ms Martina Mannion:

I might address the issue of students who, as the Deputy indicated, have suffered most as a result of lockdown such as children with special needs and the plans for a programme for the summer. The important thing to reiterate is that right from the time when the schools closed in March 2020, the Department was highly conscious of the impact of such closures on children with special educational needs. All of the steps we have taken since March 2020 have been to mitigate learning loss at every point. It involves the additional supports by way of funding, guidance and how we have managed to support those children to return safely to school. That has been our priority. The actions we took in the context of the schools being closed involved the introduction of the supplementary programme. This programme allowed for in-school provision for children who were unable to access school during the school closures. It was offered by way of additional hours teaching that could be made available to children in their home where we had guidance from public health as to how this could be managed safely in homes or, at the request of a number of schools and following representation, on school premises. As we provided guidance to schools that they could use school premises to offer the supplementary programme, that is an additional support that is available.

In respect of the summer programme, we have engaged extensively with the stakeholders regarding what worked in summer 2020. Parents requiring to offer the summer programme by way of home tuition is something that has come across as being clearly difficult for parents. The kind of measures we are looking at in terms of summer 2021 involves seeing additional supports that can be put into schools to allow the schools to run the programmes. The greater the uptake of the programmes in schools, the more this will reduce the burden on parents but, importantly, it involves listening to education stakeholders regarding what they need to do to run the programme successfully in schools. I am conscious of time so that was just a brief update of the summer programme.