Some parents at a county Mayo primary school are planning to keep their children at home due to concerns over the spread of Covid-19.
Claremorris Boys National School intended to close early ahead of the Christmas break after recording at least 12 cases since the mid-term break.
However, the Department of Education instructed the school to remain open.
Catherine Walsh is keeping her son home from second class today: “It is just that we are very nervous because we have parents who are over 80 to think about and my husband is a type 1 diabetic.
“It just makes no sense to stay open with the high number of cases in such a small school.”
She said she knows of eight other boys who will not be attending school today because of the concerns around Covid-19.
Handling outbreaks
It comes as a spokesperson for the Department acknowledged the difficulties faced by schools in handling outbreaks of the virus but insisted there was no public health rationale behind altering the agreed standardised school breaks.
Schools are due to go on Christmas holidays on Tuesday, December 22nd.
People Before Profit TD Brid Smith called for the Department's decision to be reversed, saying the school have acted correctly and the Department's decision is wrong.
"The principal said he found it very difficult to get substitute teachers to go into the school because it's known that there is an outbreak of Covid, so to run a school in those circumstances is both dangerous and probably impossible.
"I would support the Board of Management's decision, even though they made it independently. Clearly they should be allowed to have some independence in terms of the safety of their staff and children."
The Department had earlier dismissed a proposal to push forward the holidays by two school days to Friday, December 18th to allow more time for families to limit their contacts if they were going to see vulnerable family members.
