Sir, – The disastrous reopening of schools in Israel is a frightening wake-up call to those who think schools should open as normal (“When Covid subsided, Israel reopened its schools. It did not go well”, World News, August 5th)
It is now more than obvious that to open safely, good hand hygiene, along with the mandatory wearing of face masks for teachers and older (and maybe all) students, proper ventilation, social distancing and class sizes limited to below 15 students, are crucial.
Unfortunately the Department of Education’s “roadmap” to schools reopening in Ireland is shockingly lacking in detail on most of these very issues. The rapidly outdating document states that schools “where possible” should have a social distance rule of 1 metre, makes no recommendations on restricting class sizes to 15 students and declares that face masks are not “practical”.
With Covid-19 infection rates rising, the lazy and reckless response is to insist that schools just have to get on with the plan. The sensible way forward is to update the roadmap and have a staggered reopening of schools with restricted class sizes and the widespread availability of personal protective equipment for students and teachers – and that’s just to begin with. Anything less will ensure a catastrophic second wave. – Yours, etc,
SEAN KEAVENY,
Dublin 15.
Sir, – Will An Taoiseach follow the lead of his predecessor and commit to volunteering some time every week in his professional capacity as a teacher?
Indeed, if other members of the Oireachtas also decided to return to the classroom to help out, there would be little need to enforce social distancing rules inside the Dáil and Seanad. – Yours, etc,
JUDITH GOLDBERGER
Dublin 4.