Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the roadmap for returning to school. I doubt there is anybody who does not wish to see a full return to school at the end of August or the beginning of September. However, it is very late considering that the schools have been closed for more than four months. It has put unfair pressure on everybody affected, such as those responsible for preparing the timetable. Most post-primary schools would usually have the timetable prepared in June. Now we have principals or deputy principals trying to prepare a timetable within weeks, having finally received some clarity on class size. They are also faced with trying to recruit additional teachers at this late stage.

I welcome that class sizes are to be reduced, but it is unfortunate that it took a pandemic to bring this about. I hope the reduction in class size is permanent and is not just while the threat from Covid remains. The 1,080 additional teachers for post-primary schools is welcome, but I wonder how the figure was devised. There are 723 post-primary schools and this equates to approximately 1.5 teachers per school. If teachers are being advised not to attend work if they have flu-like symptoms, that figure will not be enough. While I welcome the additional posts, are there sufficient teachers in the country to fill the posts? Teachers of Irish, French and mathematics, for example, were extremely difficult to source for the past number of years so has any data been gathered on the number of teachers available for employment at present?

The roadmap does not address procedures for staff and students with underlying health conditions that make them vulnerable to Covid-19. How will children's educational needs be met if they are unable to attend school? That has not been dealt with sufficiently in the document. Children with special needs, especially autism spectrum disorder, ASD, will find returning to school after over five months off extremely difficult. These students need to be reassured. They need routine and as little change as possible. A great deal of preparation is, therefore, required before returning to school. However, again, it is so late in the day for these students and families that there is pressure on them to ensure they do not end up with school refusals.

I hope that primary schools that are due to lose a teacher this September will have that decision deferred for at least a year. The document also refers to additional psychologists being employed. Where will they come from? The National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, could not recruit enough psychologists to fill the vacancies it had last year. While the roadmap is welcome, it is aspirational and late in the day. The only thing that saves it is that there is a strong willingness among all concerned to see schools open again.

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