Time To Change The School Week?

As with all of our public buildings, Greystones’ schools have had to adapt to a whole new reality when it comes to keeping that Covid-19 distance.

And as with all of our public buildings, some have been more successful than others.

When father-of-four Gerry Edwards posted a picture on social media last week of a crowded corridor over in his teenage kids’ Kilcoole school, the reaction was immediate.

And angry. And understanding. And frustrated.

Having reached out to local councillors, the school, KWETB and beyond, Gerry and his wife, Gaye, are determined that the problem of overcrowding in our schools be addressed – with their suggestion being remote learning combined with fewer days in the actual school.

It’s an issue that affects many parents in the area, so, we asked Gerry to do an op-ed piece on this pressing subject…

I am a Co. Wicklow father of four teenagers attending a local KWETB run Secondary School. Two of my children have ASD diagnoses, and three members of our household are “High Risk”.

When we became aware of the reality of the number of students trying to move around an already overcrowded building, we were extremely concerned about the risk this presented to our family. We are not unique! We know there are thousands of families who for their own, legitimate and personal reasons are taking measures far beyond the minimum requested by our Public Health Officials. Either the risk of contracting Covid-19 or the consequences are greater than they are prepared to take.

We approached the school principal with our own concerns, and requested a blended approach to our children’s education. We agreed on physical attendance on a rolling one-day a week basis, and for practical classes and resource hours. Otherwise, classes would be streamed to their school iPads and they would attend from home, where I am now working, and my wife is also studying.

This is a situation that was working well until it was arbitrarily withdrawn on the evening of 9th October. Despite several requests, we have received no explanation for this change – who made the decision, and why they think they are better placed than we are to know what is safest and best for our family!

This situation remains unresolved. We are sticking to the agreed plan and our children continue to be marked absent for 80% of the school year. Work may or may not be assigned to them – this varies by individual teachers. Our only alternative would be to send our four children into an overcrowded school building that has already had a number of confirmed Covid-19 cases, forcing us to play a sinister game of Covid-Roulette with our family. Obviously, this is something we are not prepared to do!

What has become clear is that there is a natural power imbalance between schools and their Boards on the one hand, and students and their families on the other. This imbalance will always work against students and their families and there is scope for it to be abused, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

We have written to Minister Foley asking her to instruct all schools to offer streamed remote/blended services to those families who wish to avail of them, and where the facilities to do so already exist. This is something which she could do at the stroke of a pen and would require no additional resources. We have copied this letter to all of our local TDs/Ministers.

We are aware that this solution does not suit everybody, but such a service would significantly reduce risk for vulnerable families, at the same time reducing congestion in schools. It would also benefit the rest of the student, teacher, and support staff populations in these schools, while also reducing the risk to the community at large and helping to protect the very limited and valuable resources of the health service.
We have not had any response from the Minister or her Department, or from the current and former Health Ministers from Wicklow who share the Cabinet table, and collective Cabinet responsibility, with her.

We are all aware of recent startling increases in Covid-19 transmission. To put this into context, the cumulative incidence rate in Co. Wicklow has increased by 48% since the beginning of September, when schools opened – only seven weeks ago. In the same period there has been a 93% increase in the number of clusters nationwide. Almost 1 in 3 secondary schools throughout the country have had confirmed cases of Covid-19. The most recent report from the HPSC has also shown that the age category with the highest rate of confirmed cases in the last 14 days is the 16-24 year category – Leaving Cert and College ages.

Just last week the CMO, Dr Tony Holohan said “we have widespread community transmission in the country now, and we’re not going to be able to, and haven’t been able to, document all the patterns of infection, how they occurred in each individual – nor is it even a reasonable aspiration. We all have to accept responsibility now, because we’re not in a position to say we know exactly where all the cases are, or where all the close contact are.”

In a time where we are all apparently “in it together”, everybody needs to do all that they can to protect each other, and this duty of care applies to Government more than anyone else. The recent numbers speak for themselves and we should not have to wait for more avoidable infections, deaths and destroyed lives.

To be clear, I am not calling for school closures. On the contrary, streamed remote/blended learning will help to keep schools open for longer.

Please contact norma.foley@oireachtas.ie, your local TDs, Schools and Education Boards to request that they take this positive action now!

You can check out the above graphs in their original size right about here.