NI school return: Teaching unions in ‘broad agreement’ that phased return unlikely until after Easter

That is according to the national officer of one of Northern Ireland’s largest teaching unions, the NASUWT.

Justin McCamphill was speaking to the News Letter after another union, the National Education Union (NEU), published an “Education Recovery Plan” that said a full return for all pupils “may not be possible for some time”.

The NEU, a relatively small teaching union in terms of its Northern Ireland membership in comparison with the NASUWT or the Ulster Teachers’ Union, said in the document that class sizes should be capped at 15 with children attending on a “rota” basis.

Mr McCamphill said the NASUWT had been advocating for changes of that nature for some time.

“That document is consistent with what we have been saying since the summer,” he said.

“The NEU have described largely what was the original plan back on the 18th of June, which was that schools should reopen on a phased basis. That’s where we believe the mistake was made, that that was abandoned and that we went for a full reopening back in September.”

He added: “We think there should only be a return when it safe to do so.

“When the return happens it definitely needs to be a phased return.

“We need to be managing two metres social distancing and that’s going to limit the number of people that can be in a school building at one time.

“We would like to see the number of daily reported infections to be significantly lower than they are now, we would like to see the vaccine roll-out to teachers, and we would like to see the mitigation measures to ensure that they are adequate.”

Asked if teaching unions were in “broad agreement” about the need to hold off on the reopening until after Easter, Mr Camphill said: “Yes, I think that’s right.”

Earlier this week, Northern Ireland Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride was asked about the return of schools during a briefing with members of the press.

He suggested the Executive would consider some form of partial return.

“Obviously the Executive will want to give consideration to what that looks like and when,” Dr McBride said.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean a full return to schools. It could be a partial return. There is a wide range of options that SAGE has looked at between schools being fully opened and schools being closed. That may be, for instance, that there’s less risk for primary school children. There are certain key years which may be more important for children to return in the first instance.”

He added: “So all of those things are undoubtedly options that the Executive will wish to consider.”



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