NI Education Minister didn’t want current school plan, say MLAs

DUP MLAs say the Education Minister was not in favour of the phased return to school plan currently on the horizon for pupils in Northern Ireland.

Last Thursday, the Stormont executive announced that some primary school pupils would return to class on March 8, with some older post-primary school children returning on March 22, and no concrete date as yet for the resumption of face-to-face learning for non-exam year students.

However last night (Monday), the First Minister suggested revisiting Stormont's decision on schools reopening, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a full return to school in England on March 8.

Today (Tuesday), former Stormont minister Edwin Poots has questioned the Executive's decisions on the phased reopening of schools.

He was returning to the assembly after undergoing a cancer operation and said he will be easing back in slowly and won’t resume the mantle of Agri Minister just yet.

Mr Poots said he didn’t see the sense in a staggered return.

“And for me the logic of putting P1 to P3 back for two weeks (from March 8) and then to take them out of school (on March 22) to allow senior school children from a different school, in years 11 to 14, to go back to school, I just can't work it out,'' he told MLAs.

“I know that this is not what the Education Minister (Peter Weir) wanted, it's not what he desired but that other Executive members wouldn't allow him to open up in a more meaningful and productive way.

“So I would urge that issue to be looked at again because the public health message isn't one that schoolchildren are the big spreaders of Covid.”

DUP MLA Paul Givan said that England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty had justified a full return to schools on March 8 on the basis that the risks were negligible.

He asked why Northern Ireland had adopted a different approach.

“If it's based upon the science, why is our science so different to England compared to here in Northern Ireland when we're dealing with very similar dynamics of this virus?'' Mr Givan asked.

He insisted that his party colleague Education Minister Peter Weir had not advocated the decision to allow P1 to P3 children to return for two weeks and then revert back to home learning for a week ahead of Easter.

“This is not what he wanted,'' he told MLAs.

The comments from DUP members have led to increasing speculation that the local plan for education may change when the Executive meets on Thursday, ahead of publishing NI’s road-map out of lock-down on Monday March 1.

Meanwhile Health Committe member, Sinn Fein MLA Colm Gildernew, has said steps should be taken that match the circumstances in Northern Ireland.

"We should be guided by our own Chief Medical Officer, in terms of the trajectory of the virus, in terms of the capacity of our health service, in terms of building upon the restrictions, and also importantly, in terms of providing certainty and confidence," he said.

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