All schools are expected to reopen fully after Easter despite an increase in Covid-19 cases among younger children, Minister for Education Norma Foley has said.
Secondary students – from first year to transition year – are due to return as part of the phased reopening of schools on April 12th.
Ms Foley told an Oireachtas education committee on Tuesday that while the position regarding Covid-19 was fluid, public health authorities were satisfied that schools remained safe settings.
She said she expected all schools to be open again after the Easter break.
Earlier this week the National Public Health Advisory Team (Nphet) said about 50-60 cases a day were being reported among children of primary school going age.
However, it said only about 10 per cent of these were associated with school outbreaks.
It advised that “activities outside schools” were a factor such as playdates and multiple households meeting up for social occasions.
Debt of gratitude
Ms Foley said that while an enormous debt of gratitude was owed to society in supporting the reopening of schools, it was important to ensure everyone stuck to public health guidelines.
“We need to be conscious as parents and guardians that we’re not congregating outside schools and – as the Deputy Chief Medical Officer has articulated - there aren’t playdates and that we are vigilant,” she said.
Fine Gael TD Paul Kehoe, chair of the education committee, said many deputies were aware of anecdotal reports of gatherings such as birthday parties and celebrations, where the virus was likely to be have been transmitted and brought into schools.
Sinn Féin TD Rose Conway Walsh asked if it was coincidence that cases among children were rising at a time when schools were reopening.
“Do we know for sure they are not being infected within the school environment? How can we tell?” she asked.
Ms Foley said public health authorities were responsible for collating this data and its latest reports showed that outbreaks in schools were at a very low level.
“The positivity rate for close contact tracing is 2.4 per cent. When you compare that to the wider community it is in excess of 10 per cent,” she said.
Ms Foley said this was a tribute to strong mitigation measures in place in our schools.
At a later sitting of the committee, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris said he was "hopeful" students would have a greater on-campus experience next year compared to this year.
However, he said “had to be honest” that as long as public health restrictions remained at Level 4 and 5, the overwhelming majority of teaching would be online.
He said there had been a "dramatic" reduction in the number of overseas students attending higher education in Ireland - down from as high as 40,000 to 11,000 - due to the pandemic and this was "unlikely to change" any time soon.
Financial hit
While the third level sector had taken a financial hit, he said the Government would continue to financially support institutions.
Mr Harris also said he hoped to be in a position soon to provide more places in high-demand college courses for this year’s Leaving Cert cohort.
He said it was not as simple as funding extra places and a working group in his department was exploring the option of expanding clinical or teaching placements in some courses.
Separately, Minister of State for special education Josepha Madigan said she was seeking a review of a HSE policy which was leading to the redeployment of therapists from special schools to community services.
Ms Conway Walsh said children were at risk of losing out from access to vital therapeutic interventions.
Ms Madigan said she was aware that the policy had caused significant concern and she had written to the Minister of State responsible for disability services, Anne Rabbitte, "asking that the rollout be reviewed in light of this difficult year".
