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

It is claimed that NPHET and the Government deem schools safe to reopen. Therefore, why has it taken so long to get special education schools open? We welcome the decision by the Government, or the agreement in principle, to reopen schools on Thursday, 11 February, with a 50% student attendance. Special classes in other schools are to open on 22 February. However, what level of consultation has taken place with the unions, parents and teachers around these announcements?

While I am talking about the reopening of schools, leaving certificate and junior certificate students are mentally drained from the lack of clarity from this Government. The main message from students is to put a predictive grades system in place for the leaving certificate and, if students are unable to use this, to allow them the choice of sitting the leaving certificate. I have voiced these concerns numerous times. It is time decisions were made. I urge the Minister to share this with all of Ireland's students because, even though he is not the Minister for Education, he is the Minister with responsibility for children. The junior certificate students seem to be forgotten in all of this, so let us not forget them. They are only 14 or 15 years old. These children have no idea what exams they will be doing, when they will be doing their mock exams or what is happening with their classroom-based assessments, CBAs.

It is time decisions were made. We are not just talking about their education; we are talking about their mental health also. Many leading front-line mental health professionals have reported there is a mental health tsunami coming when Covid-19 recedes. Ireland's mental health system is not prepared for such a crisis, and this is mainly because the Irish system was in crisis mode long before the pandemic.

Cork South-West has such a shocking broadband service, from Adrigole to Kilmacsimon and right throughout west Cork, that these leaving certificate and junior certificate students cannot have remote access. One family, and there are many others, cannot even get mobile phone coverage in their own house so the students there cannot even use their own data. Can a plan can be put in place for such disadvantaged students to go into their schools and access the school Wi-Fi to learn, or even to go to their local community centres? I met several parents by phone at my office yesterday, and a mother told me she had to pick and choose from her five children who could access the Wi-Fi in the house as it is too slow for all the children to use. This is the case for many families. It is all very well to say children can learn remotely. However, in practice, in rural Ireland they are far more disadvantaged, and not alone for learning, as this is the only way our young people have to contact their friends and peers.

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