Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 14 October 2020
15. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for Education if the feasibility of pairing students of very high-risk families to very high risk teachers via an online learning platform will be examined; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25941/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraLike other Deputies, I congratulate the Minister. I am sure, however, she would be the first to tell me to congratulate those in the school community who allowed and facilitated the return to school. It has made a huge difference in the lives of many families. Unfortunately, however, many people have not been able to return to school. They include those in the very high-risk category, both teachers and families. Will the Minister consider an online platform that will pair those two groups of people to allow both to return to the thing they love, that is, the school community?
As the Deputy will be aware, my Department has published guidance to support schools in making adapted education provision for pupils who cannot return to school because they are medically certified as being at very high risk due to Covid-19. It is important that pupils in these circumstances maintain a meaningful connection with their class and school to continue their learning from home successfully. Schools have discretion to manage and redistribute their teaching support resources to best meet the learning needs of these pupils. Supports may include a teacher who is also certified as very high risk to Covid-19 who cannot themselves attend school and may be in a position to provide remote teaching to very high-risk students.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre, HPSC, and HSE have also published guidance on the return to school for at-risk groups. It outlines that children with immediate family members, including parents, in both the very high-risk and high-risk categories can safely return to school, and it is important for the child’s overall well-being that they would choose to do so. This is consistent with public health advice internationally regarding at-risk family members. The priority is that the household continues to follow all current advice on how to minimise the risk of coronavirus through regular hand washing, cough etiquette and social distancing. I am also reassured by the public health evidence to date since schools have reopened that supports the international position that schools are low-risk environments for Covid-19 and are not key drivers of transmission in the community.
It is also important to acknowledge the enormous work schools have undertaken to ensure they are safe places for their pupils, and the Department has provided a suite of guidance to support schools in this work following engagement and consultation with all of the education partners in the development of this guidance.
I welcome that the possibility of online remote learning pairing is an option for those very high-risk teachers and students. I am speaking, however, about those people with a rare disease. I have had the pleasure of working with many of them. Rare diseases are awfully misunderstood. There is often not a huge degree of knowledge within general practice, and often the patient becomes the expert in that disease relating to other international bodies. While I understand that returning to school is the best possible option in the broad scheme of things, we must understand that in circumstances where we all juggle risk in every part of our day, we make risk calculations. We must trust parents of people with a rare disease or where there is a family member with a rare disease that returning to school is not safe. We must trust those families to make that decision. I urge the Department to be flexible on this point. It is not about opening the floodgates. It is about trying to trust those families.
I will reiterate clearly from the outset that both the international and national evidence to date is clear that schools by their nature are safe environments. There is also an absolute recognition that the resources and measures required as part of the roadmap for the safe reopening of our schools have been put in place. I absolutely acknowledge a huge debt of gratitude is owed to the school communities in ensuring those measures are being implemented. All the expert advice available to us at the minute reiterates time and again that schools are safe environments. I acknowledge the role played by everybody to ensure that is the reality. Equally, I acknowledge that even as late as last week the evidence has shown there has been no material difference in terms of the rate of Covid-19 since before students returned to schools and once schools opened in this past month.
I reiterate that the Health Protection Surveillance Centre and HSE have published specific guidance regarding the return to school for risk groups. It outlines that children with immediate family members, including parents, in both the high-risk and very high-risk categories, can safely return to school, and they make the point it is important for the child's overall well-being that he or she does so.
I take on board the point the Minister makes and the genuine way in which she approaches this. I wish to raise the case of a specific person, Ms Jann Rynne, who was, sadly, diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, CLL, in 2011. She has been cocooning since February. Two of her older children have moved out of the home and are living with another family member. They have made the decision as a family not to allow the two younger children return to school. They are doing so because, internationally, CLL patient organisations record that 90% of CLL patients who contract Covid-19 are hospitalised and, unfortunately, 37% of patients with CLL who contract Covid-19 pass away. That is a calculation that family must make. We are all making those calculations. I ask the Department to do everything it can with this case and others.
I acknowledge there are individual circumstances. I am not aware of the individual circumstances of the case referenced by the Deputy.
I appreciate that there is anxiety and anxiousness around Covid-19 but I reiterate that everything we are doing in our schools is underpinned by the best public health advice available to us. I reiterate also that the Health Protection Surveillance Centre and the HSE have published guidelines on the safe return to school, particularly for children who may have family members designated to be at risk or at very high risk. It is their recommendation that schools are safe places and that in terms of the health, advancement, socialisation, academic development and all the other aspects of a child's well-being it is in their best interest that they would return to school and be catered for within the school environment.
We have time to squeeze in Deputy Brian Stanley's question. He might pose it and we will go to the Minister for the response.
