'I'm not sending my child to school to watch movies, eat popcorn and catch Covid'

One school principal has around 70% of his pupils at his school today. File photo

A school principal has said attendance at his school was roughly around 70% today as many parents decided to keep their children home amidst fears over the highly transmissible Omnicron variant.

When asked about school attendance levels, Simon Lewis, Principal of Carlow Educate Together, said: “My favourite comment on that came not from a health expert but from a parent. She basically said she wasn’t going to be sending her child to school to be watching movies, eating popcorn and catching Covid. I think that kind of sums it up really.”

Mr Lewis has called for “straightforward advice” from the Department of Education on the use of Hepa filters in schools. Speaking on Newstalk’s Pat Kenny show, he said the information on Hepa filters was confusing and that the Department of Education should have tendered for devices at national level. 

Mr Lewis: “The information that came from the Department of Education basically said go out and get your Hepa filters. 

Now, I consider myself a decent teacher - I am pretty good at education - but I am definitely not a Hepa filter expert and in my inbox this morning, there are about a dozen ads with prices for these things running from a couple of hundred euro to a couple of thousand euro and to be honest, I don’t know where to turn.

“You are trying your best in really trying circumstances and just not getting the advice that we really need.

“The advice from the Department of Education was to contact our local engineer. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t have my local engineer on speed-dial. They are great at throwing out these statements about contacting your local somebody or other but again, we just would like straightforward advice.

“We are all in the same boat. We don’t need these so-called bespoke solutions. We simply need to know what do we need and where do we get it and actually preferably, it would be nice if the Department of Education could tender that one out for us.

“Just take one job off our backs, that would be nice.”