The INTO have hit out at any suggestion that the Easter Holiday break would be shortened to make up for days lost from the snow.
Speaking to Independent.ie, the INTO’s Assistant General Secretary Peter Mullan said that at such a short proximity it would be “very unfair to make sudden changes”.
Last week, the same paper reported that the closures could affect the Easter holidays, or any mini-breaks that a school had planned to take in coming months.
They say it depends on how much time has been lost and whether the school can address the shortfalls in any other way, such as by cancelling a tour or other non-tuition activities.
Some schools may be facing three days closure this week because of the snow, bringing their total loss of time in the current year to a week.
In October, Storm Ophelia caused a two-day nationwide shutdown of the education system, and some schools may also have closed in December because of weather in their area.
Most Laois schools missed three days due to Storm Emma so there has been concerns about the number of days missed.
However Mr Mullen said that there were “a number of levers” that could be pressed by schools and teachers to recover the time lost.
Mr Mullen said schools could “prioritise tuition over non-tuition activities” or work out arrangements at local level with parents.
The Department of Education advice in relation to days lost in the school year are contained in a circular released in September 2017.
Options mentioned in the circular include taking three days from the February mid-term break or three days from the Easter break.
However Mr Mullen said that due to the way incidents happened this year he didn’t feel schools should have to make up the time.
He said: “If we had a December snow of that level, and a later Easter, you would have months to plan this but with two-and-a-half or three weeks now to Easter it would be very unfair to make sudden changes.”
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