Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire
Question:112. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Education the details of the supports she is providing to school leaders while they continue to navigate Covid-19 protocols in schools. [4820/22]
View answerTuesday, 1 February 2022
Questions (112, 152, 164)
Joe Flaherty
Question:152. Deputy Joe Flaherty asked the Minister for Education the status of the public health supports available to schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4676/22]
View answer
Jackie Cahill
Question:164. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Education the strategy in place to support schools to review their current protective measures in place under Covid-19 plans; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4674/22]
View answerWritten answers
I propose to take Questions Nos. 112, 152 and 164 together.
Schools continue to operate in line with their Covid-19 Response Plans, which set out a range of mitigation measures focused on keeping Covid-19 out of schools and reducing the risk of the spread of infection in schools. These measures have worked very effectively to prevent and control Covid-19 in schools and to protect students, their parents and school staff. Public Health have confirmed that there is no change to infection prevention and control measures in place in schools at this time, but that they will be reviewed by mid-term in February
The Covid-19 capitation grant continues to be the mechanism through which funding will be provided for school costs related to the implementation of infection prevention and control measures. More than €158 million of additional capitation funding has been made available to primary and post primary schools to provide for cleaning, PPE and hand hygiene, enhanced supervision and employment of an aide for the school year 2020/21. The Department of Education has committed to ensuring that the full range of measures necessary to allow schools operate safely in the Covid-19 environment will continue to be available for the 2021/22 school year and has provided a further €109 million to date for Terms 1 and 2 of the 2021/22 school year.
At primary level, additional management resources for principal release days were provided for Principals and Deputy Principals. Teacher Supply panels were also expanded to cover the majority of primary schools nationwide, with an additional 200 teaching posts added following a review resulting in approximately 680 teaching posts on these panels available to provide substitute cover in schools.
At post primary level over 1000 teaching posts were provided to support social distancing within classrooms, to provide for enhanced supervision arrangements in order to manage and prevent congregation of large groups of students and ensure the careful movement in a socially distant manner to classes for specialist subjects where it is neither practical nor possible to remain in the classroom. This funding also included additional posts for guidance provision.
Antigen tests are also made available to children in a primary school pod by the Department of Health and the HSE, where a child in the pod is a confirmed case of COVID-19. The tests will be sent to the children’s parents.
Parents and Guardians of a primary school child, who is a confirmed case of COVID-19 following a PCR test, are asked to inform their school’s principal. The school principal will then inform the parents of other children in the pod of a confirmed case. No personal details of the child will be shared. These parents will be provided with the option to receive free antigen tests for their child, which they will be able to order for delivery to their home.
Managing ventilation is just one of a suite of public health measures in place to keep our schools safe. Updated guidance for schools on Practical Steps for the Deployment of Good Ventilation Practices in Schools was provided at the end of May following the work of an expert group that carefully considered the role of ventilation in managing COVID-19. The updated guidance for schools is also fully in line with the most recent guidance on non-healthcare building ventilation during COVID-19, published by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre November 2021.
To provide additional support in the context of Covid-19 the payment of a minor works grant totalling €45m for primary schools and special schools, plus a once-off Covid-19 minor works funding of €17m for post-primary schools, was issued in December 2021.
Given that each school setting is different, individual schools are best placed to decide how best to use this funding to address their particular needs. Specialist advice/assistance of a Chartered Engineer or Registered Architect is an important source of support for schools. This will help ensure that appropriate solutions are being put in place to address ventilation issues including advice on whether a HEPA Air Cleaner Unit is required to deal with a poorly ventilated room. There is no one solution that fits all scenarios, each application requires bespoke analysis and selection of the appropriate unit(s) matched to the specific room size and volume.