Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent) | Oireachtas source

For the last few months, the vast majority of children at primary and post-primary level in this State have had to endure the sheer misery of being taught in classrooms and school buildings that are freezing cold. Indeed, it is not an exaggeration to say that thousands of very young children, especially those being taught in prefabs which were never warm to start with, are numb with the cold during the school day. I have had parents tell me that their children are returning home from school with headaches or muscle pain from the constant clenching of teeth or shivering. This is a ludicrous, absurd and unacceptable situation. How on earth can we expect children to learn in an environment where they are distracted by the cold, unable to concentrate, with the constant rush of freezing air from the wide open windows, particularly in the last week? How can we expect our teachers to work in those conditions? We, here today as Deputies, are not working those conditions, so why do we expect others to work in those unbearable conditions? According to the Department of Education's guidance, issued in May 2021: "The over-arching approach for schools should be to have windows open as fully as possible when classrooms are not in use (e.g. during break-times or lunch-times and also at the end of each school day) and partially open when classrooms are in use." That is all very well in the warmer months, but at this time of year it borders on negligence to expect pupils as young as five years of age to begin their formative years of education in conditions more suited to a penguin than a child.

There are also the added complications that come with having windows constantly open for children who are hard of hearing or deaf. The level of background noise in a classroom is increased significantly and only adds to the challenges they face from having visual access to faces and lips obscured by the use of masks. Many schools are not fortunate enough to have indoor PE facilities. This means that children are being taken from freezing cold classrooms to the cold outdoors to warm up, then being brought back again to a freezing classroom. We know that some schools are actively sending children home because of the inability to maintain the appropriate balance between ventilation and heating. The teaching union's advice is that members are instructed not to work in rooms where the minimum temperature level of 17.2°C is not achieved. However, many teachers are deeply conflicted and are simply trying to manage a difficult situation as effectively as they can without closing the classroom or indeed, the school. I commend them for all of their efforts that mean they have kept the schools going, but this situation cannot go on. It is intolerable and inappropriate. We need cop-on and common sense.

See this speech in context