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

The lack of forethought shown by the Minister and her Department over whether schools needed to close was very disappointing. There should always have been a plan B in place if schools needed to close. The Minister had nine months to organise this. Instead, we had half-baked plans cobbled together over the course of 24 hours, which collapsed just as quickly. In such a context, a letter sent to parents yesterday in which the Minister played the blame game for schools not reopening was an inappropriate use of communication with schoolchildren and their parents to make political statements.

School staff have been working extremely hard to provide remote learning at such short notice and there has been a lack of clear guidance and supports for teachers. I hope the Minister has learned from recent weeks and is now urgently planning on how schools can reopen safely as soon as possible.

The top priority must be children with special educational needs. I welcome that the Minister has just announced that special schools and special classes in primary schools will reopen on 21 January. Last week when the announcement was made that special schools and special classes were to open on 11 January for SEN students, the students concerned and their families were delighted that for once their needs were being taken into account and prioritised without their having to fight tooth and nail for that to happen. We all know how badly they were affected by last year's closures with many of them receiving little or no support for the three months of school closure. Children experienced academic, social and emotional regression and took weeks to settle back to school in September. When the announcement came that schools were not to reopen, they were absolutely devastated. I welcome that they will now open, but I ask the Minister to provide clarity on it.

There are 30,000 students with additional needs in our schools. One third or slightly more are in mainstream classes in mainstream schools. Will autistic spectrum disorder, ASD, units be open? What supports are being provided for the children in mainstream schools? Mainstream schools in other jurisdictions are open to cater for students with special educational needs. This is happening in the North, Britain and across Europe, and it needs to happen here.

It is also vital for the Minister to engage with the HSE and the national immunisation advisory committee to see if school staff can be placed higher on the priority list for the Covid-19 vaccine. Staff in special education urgently need clarity on when they will receive the vaccine given the importance of their role.

The Minister and her Department have left leaving certificate students in limbo for far too long. It has been an extremely difficult 12 moths for sixth year students. They lost an enormous amount of learning time in fifth year and now have to contend with the chaos of the Government U-turns of the past week. For months my colleague, Deputy Ó Laoghaire has asked the Minister to lay out the contingency plans in place for the leaving certificate class of 2021.

It is disgraceful that the Minister has yet to do so and that sixth-year students across the country have been let down so badly by her and her Department. They have been given no clarity and they have not been listened to. I urge the Minister to listen to the students and to take their concerns seriously. The mock examinations are coming up in the next few weeks and the deadlines for some projects are this week and next, while oral and practical examinations are set to take place soon. Students need clarity on if, when and how these aspects of the process will go ahead. Any project deadlines due this month must be extended. That is the least that can be done to ease the pressure on the leaving certificate classes.

If the Minister had spoken to students, she would know that the changes made to the leaving certificate papers this year go nowhere near far enough. Much more radical changes are required, at the minimum. Perhaps even more than that aspect of the situation, the Minister needs to take seriously the level of learning loss experienced by current sixth-year students. They lost three months last year, and now this month as well. From speaking with students, I know that it has been profoundly difficult for them to catch up.

The Minister must be transparent and honest with students. She must accept at this stage that there is a question over the provision of traditional leaving certificate examinations this year. It has not been a traditional 12 months for sixth-year students. This is not an issue which can be allowed to drift into the spring. Students are calling out for clarity on this issue now. I hope, therefore, that the Minister's Department is exploring all the options, including those put forward by the students themselves. This is an urgent situation and the Minister must communicate with students in a clear and considered way her contingency plan for this year's leaving certificate examinations. That is the least these students deserve.

I have several questions. As many children struggling badly now will not benefit from the special schools, I ask the Minister to provide clarity on special units and students in mainstream schools. Will all SNAs and staff who must be in close proximity to children get surgical grade masks? Will it also be ensured that staff at high risk are given the option to work remotely and are matched with children whose families want them to learn remotely?

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