NI principal comes in for criticism from DUP man for rejecting self-isolation guidelines

Diane Dawson, principal of Braniel Primary School in east Belfast, said during a BBC radio interview earlier this week that she has “no faith or trust in the current guidance” and is instead sticking to the “excellent practice” that was in place last year.

The current guidelines state that a child aged five to 17 should immediately self-isolate and book a PCR test.

If the test is negative for coronavirus, the pupil can return to class.

Last year’s guidance, however, was for pupils to remain in self-isolation for 10 days and then return to class.

Responding to Ms Dawson’s comments, DUP MP Sammy Wilson said: “It seems that there are some people who are determined to stop us getting back to normality. Either tests count for something or they don’t.

“If a child tests negative then why keep them from school?”

He continued: “It seems that this principal has no conception of the disruption which sending children home needlessly has on the ability of parents to get out to work which is essential to getting the economy moving.

“However, you would think that as an educationalist she would know how days off school can disrupt a child’s education and if she had even given cursory attention to the academic studies carried out she would know that children from working class areas such as the Braniel suffer most from such disruption.

“This ‘excellent practice’ has seen tens of thousands of children’s education damaged in the long term. There should be more concern about long term education consequences than this mantra of long term covid.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to newsletter.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to the best Northern Ireland and UK news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Ben Lowry

Acting Editor