Sir, – Barnardos is to be thanked for highlighting the problems caused for many children and young people by the move to remote learning in recent years due to the pandemic (“Parents concerned over gaps in children’s learning following Covid-related disruption”, News, August 20th).
Almost two years ago, Micheál Martin acknowledged that the first period of moving to remote learning caused by Covid-19 would have a more acute impact on disadvantaged students than on their peers, and that an appropriate policy response would therefore be required.
Since then, as we all know, there have been further interruptions. The Minister for Education Norma Foley took quite a while to respond to the Taoiseach’s suggestion, but in September 2021 she introduced the Covid Learning and Supports Scheme (Class).
It suffered from two striking defects as we pointed out in an opinion piece in these columns at the time (September 17th).
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First, the level of resources provided was inadequate relative to the task in hand.
Second, in order to make the best use of additional resources, a school principal needs to be notified well in advance of any school year so as to integrate the “catch-up” initiative into the wider school programme. As subsequently transpired, the Minister’s insistence that none of the planned additional resources could be used before October 11th, 2021, coincided with the period when the teacher supply problem was becoming most acute.
Taking account of these issues, it is no surprise that the recent survey organised by Barnardos has identified significant gaps in students’ learning arising from the interruptions to “normal” in-school provision.
In order to avoid a repeat of these errors, we called for an early decision on the nature and extent of the Class scheme in respect of the forthcoming year (News, June 20th).
It is a matter of great regret that this has been ignored.
The Taoiseach, as a former teacher as well as minister for education, has recognised the scale of the problem.
Surely he can ensure that action is taken, even at this late stage. – Yours, etc,
Prof JUDITH HARFORD,
Dr BRIAN FLEMING,
School of Education,
University College Dublin,
Belfield,
Dublin 4.