The Minister for Further and Higher Education has said the decision to not proceed with phase 4 of reopening the country increases the ability to ensure that children return to education in September.

The Minister for Further and Higher Education has said the decision to not proceed with phase 4 of reopening the country increases the ability to ensure that children return to education in September.
Simon Harris said he believes it would have been grossly irresponsible to ignore public health advice and move forward with phase 4 in spite of “knowing that we have a huge body of work to do as a country to get our kids back to school and to get our learners and third level student back as well”.
Speaking at the publication of a strategy for further education and training Minister Harris said it was down to “every single one of us now as citizens to give our children the very best chance now by keeping the virus as low as possible”.
He said we didn’t want to see a situation where the virus has re-emerged at the same time as we are trying to get our children safely back to school.
He said he agreed with the Taoiseach that getting children back to school was a major priority.
“I’ve seen in my own constituency and with family and friends the negative impact that it has on a child being out of school and that goes well beyond learning”.
Mr Harris said the Minister for Education was leading “a huge body of work” to get schools reopened and he said his own department was working on a framework document for the reopening of further and higher education.
He said the framework would be published later this month.
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