By Digital Desk Staff. Additional reporting by Vivienne Clarke.
The country’s schools will reopen in February if the public cooperates to reduce current levels of Covid-19 transmission, the Education Minister has said.
Norma Foley said the reopening of schools in February will depend on public behaviour and adherence to restrictions over the coming weeks.
“The education sector is playing its part to reduce mobility, we need wider society now to reduce mobility reduce its contacts,” she said.
“If wider society does as it is being asked to do, well then certainly, at the review at the end of January, in terms of the reopening for the 1st of February, we will most certainly be in a position to reopen our schools.”
Leaving Cert
On the sitting of this year’s Leaving Certificate examinations, the Minister said all options and all positions will be considered but did not say when a decision would be made over the exams.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Minister Foley said the Advisory Group on the Leaving Cert – which is made up of student representatives, parents groups, school management bodies and teachers – will meet in the coming weeks “to consider everything on the table.”
The issue of the vaccine roll-out would also have to be considered, she said, before a decision could be made on whether a “traditional” Leaving Cert could go ahead.
With the Government currently maintaining that it intends to run written exams, calls have been made for a back-up plan to be put in place within the next month in the event the June examinations are called off.
We can’t have decisions drifting well into the spring
Amid fears students may not attend in-person classes until after St Patrick's Day, Sinn Féin's education spokesperson Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire said continency plans are needed.
“Given the time that has [been] lost, the Department may decide that it’s not possible or fair to proceed with the exams as we imagine them in a traditional year,” he said.
“I think there were serious problems with predictive grades last year, if they are going to run with that, those need to be fixed, it needs to be fair and more transparent.
“We can’t have decisions drifting well into the spring, I think this needs to decided and clear and finalised by mid-February.”
