By Kenneth Fox
Schools should make every possible effort to hold school assemblies remotely or in small groups, according to the Department of Education.
It comes after a secondary school in Carlow came under criticism on Tuesday for holding an assembly with 152 students.
While it is clear that students have to physically distance during an assembly, there is still confusion around how many students are allowed to actually congregate for one.
In a statement released to BreakingNews.ie yesterday evening, a spokesperson for the department said:
"When organising staff meetings, school management should make every possible effort to hold them remotely or in small groups, while maintaining a two metre distance.
"They should also avoid large gatherings including large full school or year group assemblies in one physical space."
The spokesperson said despite these concerns, making sure schools reopen is an important step for the department:
"The re-opening of schools is a key national priority. As part of the suite of public health measures, limits were placed on gatherings in other settings in order to support the reopening of schools which by its nature involves significant numbers of staff and students in school buildings."
Social impact
This comes as today the Central Statistics Office (CSO) released a new survey about the social impact of reopening schools
66 per cent of respondents with primary school children, and 41 per cent of respondents with secondary school children, reported their child spent two hours or less on learning activities provided by their school during the period of enforced school closures.
Of those with primary or secondary school children, 7 per cent have arranged an alternative to public transport and school buses due to COVID-19 concerns.
Meanwhile, close to two in three respondents reported they would be very or somewhat likely to avail of a COVID-19 vaccine for their school children if one were available
If schools have to close, close to 17 per cent of female respondents with a primary school student reported that they may have to give up work compared to 3.9 per cent of males
Of those surveyed with children of school going age, 6.5 per cent reported they will not be sending a child due to attend either pre-school, primary school or secondary school to an educational setting in the coming academic year due to COVID-19 concerns.
