COVID-19: NI Executive to consider full school return by April

Stormont Ministers are due to meet later today (Thursday) to discuss a proposal from the Education Minister to accelerate the current return to school plan.

We understand the paper being put forward by Peter Weir asks colleagues to consider allowing all school pupils to return to the classroom on April 12.

What is the current return to school plan?

The current arrangement includes pre-school/ nursey children and P1-3 to be in school and have face-to-face teaching from March 8.

However, those year groups are expected to return to remote learning for one week before pupils go off for their Easter Holidays.

This was to allow years 12-14, who will be awarded qualifications this summer, to return to the classroom on March 22.

What are the suggested changes?

The paper being put forward by Mr Weir suggests all primary school children should return to in person teaching on March 22.

It also asks Ministers to consider scrapping the plan to have P1-P3 return to remote learning for one week before Easter.

Politicians will have to decide if they support these changes to the staggered approach, after hearing health advice surrounding Covid transmission rates, infection rates, hospitalisations, and vaccinations.

Downtown and Cool FM News heard from Executive Ministers this week during a Q and A with the media outside the Ulster Hospital in Dundonald.

Health Minster Robin Swann would not be drawn on what we can expect to hear.

He said: “The Education Minister said he’s going to bring a paper to the executive to be discussed, to be considered, and I think you’ll know me well enough that I’ve never had any of those discussions or made any of those recommendations outside of an Executive meeting before those discussions have been had.”

First Minister, Arlene Foster, said the meeting will involve weighing up the different repercussions of going back to school or sticking with remote learning.

She said: “It is absolutely about taking health concerns and health advice in relation to all of this,” she said.

“But it’s also about the other harms, and the Chief Medical Officer has been very clear about this, the other harms to children, the fact that they’re not being taught together with their peers, their mental health and well-being, the fact that they can’t engage in school sport – we’ll be looking at all of those issues.”

For Deputy First Minster, Michelle O’Neill, it seems the preferred approach is sticking to the original plan.

She said: “I want to see all children back in school in a safe and sustainable way. The executive needs to discuss that.

“I think we’ve already set out a phased approach to schools, we need to work our way through that, we need to give a bit of time to analyse the impact of the children that returned, but the executive needs to do that collectively because what people need now, is for us to work our way through the planned approach that we’ve set out.”

READ MORE:

Education Minister tables motion to accelerate school return

COVID-19: NI pupils out of lockdown and back to the classroom

COVID-19: 'Grow up and wise up' message to rule breakers

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