Digital Desk Staff
Primary and secondary schools are likely to reopen over a three-week period in March, according to senior education sources.
Special education schools will partially reopen from this Thursday, with 50 per cent student attendance.
This will be followed by the return of special classes in mainstream primary schools, due to return on February 22nd.
According to The Irish Times, the phased reopening of mainstream class across primary and secondary schools will take place in advance of the Easter holidays, which start on March 26th.
Sources told The Irish Times that the pace of the phased reopening will be guided by public health advice and trends of community Covid-19 transmission.
There have been no talks on which year groups will return first. However, sources said the classes likely to resume first at primary level will be junior and senior infants.
The reasoning is that remote learning is the most challenging for this age group.
Leaving Cert
Meanwhile, exam year students will be prioritised for second level. This means third and sixth years will return first followed by fifth years and the rest of the student body.
The Department of Education and second-level teachers' unions are holding talks this week, but the focus of these talks will be the form of the 2021 Leaving Cert.
Minister for Education Norma Foley previously confirmed that planning had commenced for Leaving Cert exams along with an alternative “non-exam” option.
The alternative option is likely to be a version of last year's calculated grades model with some alterations.
However, sources said the two options will present difficulties in standardising results in two different systems.
