James Cox
Agreement has still not been reached to enable schools for special needs children to reopen next Thursday.
The Department of Education wrote to principals last night to outline the plans for over 20,000 children to return to class.
It applies to special schools, and children with special needs in mainstream primary schools.
Fórsa represents 12,000 staff involved, and the union said efforts to reopen the schools “were still underway”.
Safety measures
A statement said “agreement had yet to be reached on enhanced safety measures that would facilitate the safe resumption of services”.
Fórsa added that talks with the Department “had not concluded and that a number of issues remained to be resolved”.
The issues include “the safety of SNAs at high risk of Covid infection” and childcare arrangements for workers.
In response to reports of an agreement to reopen special schools, the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) said while it supported the reopening of school for children with additional needs, this will require evidence that it is safe to do so.
“While supporting the continuity of learning remotely is far from ideal, we hope to be able to return to our classrooms fully, but it remains to be seen if the public health landscape improves enough to enable the resumption of classroom-based learning,” said INTO general secretary John Boyle.
