Trade unions calling for NI schools to stay shut due to coronavirus, says Unison regional secretary Patricia McKeown

The regional secretary of Unison, which also represents staff who work in education, said “all of the unions involved in education” believe schools shouldn’t open.

Patricia McKeown made her comments in a radio interview broadcast by BBC Radio Foyle.

Before the beginning of the current lockdown period, Education Minister Peter Weir had announced a proposal for schools to reopen on schedule in January, with the introduction of remote learning for some post-primary pupils not sitting exams near the end of the month.

Under the proposals, special schools are to be exempt from the move to remote learning, Mr Weir said.

The minister stressed that his proposal is “dependent upon the public health situation”.

Also in the days before Christmas, Northern Ireland’s chief scientific officer Professor Ian Young said it will be very difficult to keep schools open if a new, more contagious variant of Covid-19 becomes dominant here.

The first positive case of the new strain in Northern Ireland was confirmed on December 23.

Today, Unison regional secretary said: “ There’s a very clear position from all of the unions involved in education, and Unison is one of the major unions — they shouldn’t open.

“The advice to the UK government from the medical and scientific experts has been to keep schools closed. We do not understand why schools are due to open here as we have moved into lockdown.”

The chair of the British Medical Association’s GP committee in Northern Ireland, Dr Alan Stout, was also asked whether schools should reopen.

“I know that the Executive are monitoring this very closely,” he told BBC Radio Foyle.

“We need to see what the figures are, we need to see what the infection rates are, and that will then guide any decision on whether schools go back or how they go back.”

Dr Stout continued: “I think schools are a very difficult area because there’s no question that education and the future of our children has been prioritised and, I think, quite rightly. We are also in a position that to educate our children we shouldn’t be dependent on schools being open and that’s really where our focus should be. If we need to have a period of time to reduce the spread and protect our population, particularly our most vulnerable, then we need to make sure we have robust alternatves for children to actually attend in school.”

Ms McKeown also outlined her view of the current position in the health service, saying: “When you consider that this time last year they were taking industrial action because of unsafe staffing levels in the health service, you can imagine that at the moment the staffing situation is not a good one. We have a meeting tomorrow with the Department specifically to talk about where we are with nursing.

“But reports from all of our people around the system over the weekend are that they are coping. They’re stressed, they’re worried, but they are there and they are getting the job done as best they can. I think that they’re doing an incredible job.”

She continued: “I don’t want to talk people into a further crisis. I think that the resilience of the people we represent is absolutely amazing, and what a debt we owe them.

“But yes, people are worried. We are anticipating the impact of the easement. That’s yet to come I thinl. We are hoping that we don’t see any further consequences of either Christmas or New Year’s Eve.

I hope to God people do listen because, you know, we’ve lost health workers to this. They are much more in harm’s way because they are in there with this virus trying to save people.”