Teachers are urging families to show patience as schools return to remote learning this week.

Online classes resumed yesterday after the Government last week confirmed schools would remain closed until February 1st at the earliest.

On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, John Boyle, General Secretary of the Irish National Teacher’s Organisation said the latest lockdown caught a lot of schools by surprise.

“There may have been a bit of complacency to be fair because, for the 80 days that schools were open before Christmas, there were certain outbreaks and certain anxieties but it was a successful 80-day school term and nobody really expected this,” he said.

“When we met NPHET on December 16th we didn’t schedule another meeting with them until January 13th because at that time, everybody expected schools to reopen.

“No more than anything that is new and irregular it takes a couple of days to get it up and running properly and families themselves only heard on Wednesday that this new situation was emerging.

“You have to give a chance to a family with two working parents and three children maybe to get themselves organised.”

Remote learning

He said plans for a return to remote learning have been in place since before the end of the last school year – but warned that it will take time to get into the swing of things.

“Schools knuckled down, staff got together and they planned for an emergency in the hope that it would never happen and unfortunately it has happened,” he said.

“It is a short-term three-week closure and let’s hope that all schools are safe to reopen on February 1st.

“We are getting good feedback that schools, first of all, are regularly engaging with children on a daily basis and that there is a blend of guided and independent learning happening.

“There is directed teaching but it is really, really difficult for certain families – for instance, if you have three children and only one device or no device it is hard, but teachers are taking all that into account.”

Patience

He urged families to allow teachers and children time to get reaccustomed to the online experience.

“I think people are going to have be a little bit patient about week one,” he said.

“It was Friday night before schools were even told they were allowed under public health guidelines to distribute books this week.

“So, books were distributed, I know, in a lot of schools yesterday and today.”

Teaching organisations are meeting with department officials in the coming days to plan for reopening in February.

Meanwhile, disability groups met with the Education Minister Norma Foley yesterday and called for special schools and classes to reopen by next week.