By Vivienne Clarke
The president of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) has said that State exams must go ahead in 2021 “no matter what”.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Today show, Ann Piggott said that the content of exam papers may need to be changed because of the current situation and that if time was needed to catch up that teachers would be willing to discuss the matter with the Department of Education.
Ms Piggott called for clarity on the reopening of schools as teachers needed time to plan for remote learning and parents needed to make child minding arrangements.
“Very safe places.”
The union was worried about the increasing levels of the virus in the community. At a meeting with the Minister for Education on Monday, Ms Piggot said they were told that schools were “very safe places” and would reopen on Monday next.
“I don’t think there’s honesty in facing what’s happening.”
It was a cause for concern that the Minister had a different position from that of the Chief Medical Officer, she said.
On the same programme Dr Gabrielle Colleran, radiology consultant, warned that if schools closed then some frontline workers would have to stay at home to mind their children. She called for childcare to be provided for such workers so they could go to work when the country was facing the worse of the surge.
“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, other countries have done it.”
School principal Colm O’Rourke said that within schools “things have improved by 10 years” since this time last year with regard to remote learning. There had been “huge investment” by the Department of Education and schools were now in a better position to provide online teaching, it was the engagement level that was the issue.
The shorter the time out of school, the better, he said.
