Sir, – The surest way for schools to fully re-open at the end of August is to totally suppress Covid-19 on the entire island as per New Zealand. This means 100 per cent buy-in on masks, distancing, etc, backed by effective legislation along with a 24-hour testing service, compulsory testing/isolation of incoming travellers, minimal foreign travel and all-island collaboration.
With only 30 days before schools re-open, we have little time in which to hit zero-case suppression. If successful, we could open up almost every restricted activity and become “normal people” again. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN FLANAGAN,
Blackrock, Co Dublin.
Sir, – As a lecturer in a third-level public sector college I am wondering why there is no plan from the Government to fully reopen third-level colleges equivalent to the one for schools?
It is well documented that most third-level colleges intend opening for one or two days per week for any given student, meaning that at most, students can attend on campus for two-fifths of the week – a far shorter time than for schools.
It is also well documented that the Government has long since underfunded the third-level sector; and in this light the question has to be asked whether there is a deliberate strategy by Government, senior education civil servants and top management of Ireland’s third-level institutions to purposefully not fully open colleges; and to use the Covid-19 pandemic to permanently push a portion of third-level teaching online? I am very suspicious of such decision making being at the centre of the lack of urgency to reopen colleges.
The consequences to not opening third-level colleges fully for Irish students are as severe as if schools were not to reopen. In particular, the generation who didn’t sit their Leaving Cert will now commence their college life largely from the bedrooms! There’s hardly a worse scenario one can imagine for those students; yet none of the stake holders in third-level education seem in any rush to affect that situation.
Perhaps as worryingly, colleges the length and breadth of the island seem to be pulling out all the stops to bring foreign students into the country; and it would seem that the combined efforts to roll out the red carpet for such students while holding our own students in their bedrooms and online for the longest possible time seems to suit the model of not funding third-level education for Irish students very well; while turning our colleges into ones that service international students disproportionately better; because they pay far higher fees.
A number of deep-rooted questions need to be asked about the future direction of our third-level education sector; and whether it has the interest of Irish students, and our nation, at heart? – Yours, etc,
KEVIN NOLAN,
Lecturer in Physics,
TUD, Tallaght, Dublin 24.