180 NI schools make inquiries to Public Health Agency over Covid in a month

However, Education Minister Peter Weir told MLAs that while 180 schools have “made some level of inquiry”, it does not mean they all had positive Covid-19 cases.

“It could be simply checking something where somebody is perhaps displaying symptoms but there is no indication of a positive case, it can be something which can impact on one particular student or member of staff or it can be some much more widely,” he said.

Mr Weir said his department tracks level of school attendance, and said figures indicate high levels.

“Obviously we would anticipate some level of dip given current circumstances, but it does actually show that Northern Ireland for instance compared to the figures in England and Wales where there has been quite a large number of absences,” he said.

A number of schools have experienced cases of the virus and sent pupils home as a precautionary measure.

On Monday, St Comgall’s Primary School in Bangor announced it would close for two weeks.

Mr Weir said the cases at St Comgall’s, as well as another school, do “not directly involve the children”, but that “more than one teacher that has been directly involved”.

“That has actually created a staffing issue… so we are working alongside those, and I would hope in both cases to see resumption of full school activity as quickly as possible, certainly before we reach the point of 14 days,” he said.

The education minister was also questioned about the possibility of P7 children sitting the transfer test in their own primary schools.

Thousands of parents have signed petitions calling for children to be allowed to sit the tests in their own primary schools, rather than travel to larger testing centres.

Mr Weir said as the tests are set and run by private bodies – the AQE and PPTC – he has no power to order where they are sat.

However he told MLAs that there were changes made in recent years that mean there is “no bar to prevent any primary school from hosting the tests”.

The transfer tests have been postponed to January following a legal challenge by a parent.

Ulster Unionist MLA Steve Aiken urged the minister to indicate whether he thinks tests should be held in primary schools, “to provide an impetus between the schools and examination bodies to be able to do that”.

Mr Weir responded saying the “ideal situation” would be that every child being able to sit the test in their own school.

However he cautioned it could only be done with “full buy in” from primary schools, otherwise a “less equitable position” where some children could sit the test in their own schools while others could not.

TUV MLA Jim Allister urged the minister to “recommission” the transfer test as a departmental test.

Mr Weir responded: “We need to give people a level of long term certainty, if we have a situation where one particular action in terms of a state test is done by one minister, and then a different minister with a different view simply cancels that, you would be simply throwing people between different situations.”

The minister was also questioned about a critical report which found that 85% of statements of special educational needs (SEN) are issued outside the 26-week statutory limit.

Auditor general Kieran Donnelly has called for an “urgent overhaul” of the system to improve provision for SEN.

Mr Weir said he welcomed the report for “shining a light on what needs to happen”, adding that there will be movement “fairly soon on the issue of the SEN framework”.

“In terms of the detail of the report, I am restricted by procedure at the moment in terms of commenting directly on it,” he added.