15th December 2020
NITC welcomes the comments of the Chair of the Education Committee, Chris Lyttle MLA, over the weekend, acknowledging the commitment of teachers in exceptional circumstances and the need for the Minister to take decisive action and review the position he has taken on the closure of schools prior to Christmas.
With the PHA’s Education Team being stood down on December 23rd school principals are having forced upon them an even greater role, than present, in carrying out the inevitable track and trace activity that will arise as more Covid-19 infections occur in school over the course of this week and the beginning of next week. The effect of this will be to have principal teachers placed on stand-by up until December 27th negating their holiday entitlement and putting them in the unenviably position of having to ring parents to share the bad news of Covid-19 infections, ruining Christmas for the families concerned.
The NITC calls on Minister Weir to accept the sensible proposal coming from the Chairperson of the Education Committee and make Thursday, December 17th the last day of this school term. This is a sensible decision for families, their hard-pressed teachers and school principals.