Social distancing forcing students to sit apart 'like classrooms in the past'

Children line up to start their first day in Naíonáin Bheaga at Scoil Chrónáin in Rathcoole, Co Dublin this morning. Picture: Damien Eagers 

For teacher Ben Cochain, the introduction of social distancing to the classrooms at Cork Educate Together Secondary School (CETSS) reminds him of the classrooms of his youth growing up in France.

“I don't know how it was in Ireland 20, 30 years ago but in France, the classrooms were set up how we have the classrooms set up now, with students at individual desks, one metre or two metres away from each other,” he told the Irish Examiner.