Days before schools were due to open in August 2020, Education Minister, Norma Foley, finally gives a radio interview, most of which is dominated by "Golfgate". Evidence of school outbreaks in other countries was ignored.
Excerpts.
"Since producing the roadmap, new research has come to light. Reopening schools without updating plans accordingly is unconscionable. It is now accepted, as reported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, that children are as infectious as adults. The ECDC also advocates that the same control measures that apply in the community, including two-metre distancing, should also apply to schools.
Last week, less than two weeks after Berlin’s 825 schools reopened, outbreaks have occurred in some 41 schools, affecting all age groups. Multiple school closures ensued. Norma Foley should delay reopening schools to establish what went wrong. When dealing with a deadly disease for which there is no vaccine or cure, the precautionary principle should be triggered to prevent widespread infection and deaths".
"Minister Foley must come up with
a Plan B containing the vision lacking in Plan A. It must include remote
learning options for medically compromised pupils who can’t physically attend
school but to whom the state has a statutory obligation to provide an
education.
Remote learning should also be
available to pupils living with vulnerable relatives. As a strategy, it has a
secondary benefit of reducing class sizes significantly, which would be cheaper
than building extra classrooms and recruiting additional staff".
The scientific community is
coalescing around the following measures being in place before
reopening schools safely: Low community transmission (Ireland’s Covid growth
rate is the third-highest in the EU), test-and-trace, ventilation, small classes, two-metre distancing and mandatory masks.
Irish schools clearly don’t meet
these tests.
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