Director of National Principals and Deputy Principals Association Paul Crone has welcomed a commitment from Minister for Education Norma Foley to provide additional resources for schools coping with Covid-19 problems.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s News at One, Mr Crone said that it is good that schools will retain autonomy as they know their students and were best placed to respond to any situation.
It is a welcome idea to keep schools safe, he said, even if that meant erring on the side of caution.
Health Service Executive chief clinical officer Colm Henry told the same programme that the HSE wanted to be supportive of school principals and school teams. And he added that work is ongonig on a system that would cause minimum disruption.
Dr Henry acknowledged that there had been a backlog in calls. But he said extra resources are being provided from Wednesday for public health services to assist principals.
There are already “positive indicators” that the rate of transmission is coming down, he added. But it is important that symptomatic children stay at home.
The Minister also told News at One that 100 additional staff from the department had been assigned to assist public health cope with the extra numbers. The country is still in a pandemic, so it is important to be cautious, she added.
