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Public health officials have advised that all schools can reopen from Thursday, January 6th, by following latest advice on risk mitigation measures, according to informed sources.
Minister for Education Norma Foley and HSE public health officials are meeting on Tuesday afternoon with teachers’ unions, school managers to discuss school reopening.
It is understood that public health officials have advised that schools are in a position to reopen, with increased emphasis on ventilation advice and the need for symptomatic staff and pupils, or close contacts, to stay away from the classroom.
A formal announcement on school reopening from Ms Foley is expected on Tuesday evening.
Earlier, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said schools would reopen this week as things stand.
“The plan is that schools and colleges will go back, in the unlikely event that there’s any changes to that plan, it’ll be something for the Minister for Education to announced, but as things stand, schools and colleges go back as normal in January. It’s really important that kids have their education, we know the damage that school closures do to kids, and I think if they were not to open on Thursday, you’d have to ask the question of when they would open.”
Teaching unions called for clarity on Covid-19 isolation measures, ahead of the reopening of schools in the coming days.
Michael Gillespie, general secretary of the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI), said that public health advice was needed about the duration of self-isolation for people infected with Covid-19, so teachers and students will know if they can return to school.
“We need to get an idea of the numbers in schools that will be missing,” he told Newstalk Breakfast on Tuesday.
“A lot of members couldn’t get PCR tests, but they did test positive with antigen tests, they had symptoms.
“There’s a lack of clarity as to how many days they need to isolate – is it from their PCR test, is it from their antigen test – that will have a big effect on school reopenings – we need that sort of certainty,” he said.
Mr Gillespie said students in exam years and those in special education classes needed to be prioritised, to “make sure they’re able to return if there are staffing issues in schools,” he said.
The union official said it was too early to say if calls for a staggered return to classrooms would work. The situation was not “one size fits all” as schools would have different levels of attendance, he said.
Mr Gillespie said that the TUI had always advocated for disadvantaged students and they were very much aware of the impact of school closures on such students.
The general secretary of ASTI, Kieran Christie, said teachers were committed to the reopening of schools in a coherent and sensible fashion that would work for everybody, but there was “considerable amount of unease” at the spread of Omicron.
“We feel that additional measures with regard to health and safety are and will be necessary,” he said.
“We want clarity in relation to the level of risk assessment that needs to be done in the context of the Omicron variant because we haven’t had an opportunity to look at how it operates in second-level schools and whether or not the mitigations that are in schools are sufficient and will hold up.”
Principals fear that anywhere from 10 to 50 per cent of teachers and students may be absent in schools on Thursday.
“Omicron is so radically different that it demands and it requires a whole new revision, or at least review, of everything that we’ve been doing and to supplement it and add to it so that we can get ourselves out from under this horrible pandemic once and for all,” he said.
“If everybody is allowed to walk in the door on Thursday morning in the hope that it’ll all be well, it probably won’t be in most cases and we’ll have chaos”.

The Ombudsman for Children, Dr Niall Muldoon, called for the Government to explore “all options” to keep students in classrooms, stating closing schools could not be “our default response”.
Dr Muldoon said the most vulnerable children and those with special needs would be “disproportionately affected” from closures. The negative impact of school closures on children’s learning and social development were “wider and deeper than missing a few weeks of classes,” he said.
The Ombudsman said “every safeguard” and safety measure should be exhausted, rather than “retreating” to previous responses used this time last year.
“In the coming weeks there will be situations where classes or schools may have to move to online learning due to staff shortages,” he said. Or cases where children self-isolating at home needed to be provided with learning materials.
“Teachers and everyone in school communities must be supported to make this happen. They should also be provided with the equipment needed to ensure that schools remain as safe as possible for all children and staff,” he said.
Fórsa trade union has said the ability of schools to be deemed safe would depend on the restoration of full contact tracing, extra public health supports, and an assessment of air quality in all classrooms.
Andy Pike, head of Fórsa’s education unit, said unions had been calling for better health and safety measures for more than a year, to address “obvious deficiencies” in schools.
“It is clear that not every school will be able to fully open due to the prevalence of Covid within the school population,” he said. Schools should reopen where a safe service could be provided, he said.
“However, where there are clear deficits in health and safety provision or where large numbers of staff are suffering from Covid related illness it may not be possible for every class to return from Thursday,” he said.
On Monday night, the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) said it was “deeply concerned” schools may reopen without additional measures being put in place to protect students and staff. “This would constitute an unacceptable risk in the context of the Omicron wave,” the union said.
The ASTI said it will be proposing a staggered reopening in which it said face-to-face teaching with exam years should be prioritised.
It is also calling for HEPA filtration units to be rolled-out to schools, adding it “beggars belief that almost two years into this pandemic this basic facility is not in place where necessary”.
The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) has said it will be necessary to utilise more student teachers to provide substitute cover for classes in the coming weeks, as a result of staff members being out on Covid-related leave.
Concern from teaching unions over the reopening of schools comes amid a surge in cases of the Covid-19 Omicron variant, which has led to large numbers of people self-isolating, either with the virus or as close contacts.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) is to meet on Thursday to discuss the Covid-19 situation, with public health officials concerned over the pressure the latest wave is placing on the health service.
Northern Ireland
In the North, the National Association of Head Teachers has warned that the return to school will lead to a further increase in Omicron transmission, and raised concerns over contract tracing and staffing.
The North’s Minister of Education Michelle McIlveen has said that her priority is to keep children in school and added that her department continues to liaise with the department of health as well as schools over Covid concerns.
She said a detailed note was sent to schools outlining “a number of scenarios where schools can use remote learning, particularly where they are experiencing staff shortages”. – Additional reporting PA