By Vivienne Clarke
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin has said teachers and school principals are being asked to make public health decisions about children who have returned to school.
He said a large number of parents had contacted him to express their concern about the way in which schools were reopening.
“I've been talking very much off the record to some teachers and some principals who feel that they're being left making public health decisions without adequate guidance from the Department of Health.”
Chaotic
This situation was happening in many places, not just his constituency, he said. "There were instances where there was no social distancing on school buses with children sometimes on a bus for up to an hour."
The “last minute nature” of the reopening of schools was “a little bit chaotic” and “a little bit haphazard” he added.
“I was contacted by one principal who was only getting access to a new school building four days before her teachers were due to arrive in and six days before her pupils arrive in. The difficulty is, though, we're hearing lots of these types of cases, there is no question that the Department of Education and the then-Minister came very late in the day to engage with the unions and the schools.”
