Long term, substantial investment and innovative new ways of doing things will be required if schools are to reopen – and stay open \u2013 in the coming weeks, according to Gary Gannon, the Social Democrats spokesperson for Education.<\/p>\n
Deputy Gannon said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe past number of months have been extremely difficult for students and parents and it\u2019s understandable that they want to see a clear pathway to the safe reopening of our schools. We\u2019ve known that this situation is coming for months, and the Government cannot simply continue to make it up as it goes along and has now just one opportunity to get it right.<\/p>\n
\u201cRenewed warnings by the ASTI that classrooms could be left empty in September over teachers’ safety fears are a stark reminder of the complex challenges that lie ahead for the Government in reopening schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust hours after the Taoiseach committed to reopening our schools, Kieran Christie, the ASTI General Secretary, told his members that there must be no compromise on safety and said teachers were extremely worried about returning to work.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully these comments will help concentrate Government minds ahead of tomorrow\u2019s expected announcement of the plan to reopen schools. The safety and wellbeing of teachers, SNAs, students and non-teaching staff has to be the overriding consideration.<\/p>\n
\u201cA long term view will have to be central to the plan \u2013 this isn\u2019t just about schools reopening in the autumn, it\u2019s about the multi-year impact the lockdown has had and will continue to have on students and their learning and life chances unless sustained investment is made to claw back the lost progress.”<\/p>\n
ENDS
\n26th July 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Long term, substantial investment and innovative new ways of doing things will be required if schools are to reopen – and stay open \u2013 in the coming weeks, according to Gary Gannon, the Social Democrats spokesperson for Education. Deputy Gannon said: \u201cThe past number of months have been extremely difficult for students and parents and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gary-gannon","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n