Sir, – Having read Pat Leahy's article "School closures will lose votes of middle Ireland" (Opinion & Analysis, December 11th), I now understand why schools are "safe" from Covid! However, despite the realpolitik, I hope that somebody, somewhere in Government realises that fundamental changes need to be made if schools are to have any chance of adequately coping long term with Covid.
These changes should start by reducing class sizes, paying young teachers a wage that will attract and retain many new recruits and by cutting the cost and length of the prohibitively expensive postgraduate teacher training degree which incredibly costs nearly €15,000.
What kind of changes, if any, the Government makes will ultimately determine the future impact of Covid on schoolchildren. – Yours, etc,
SEAN KEAVNEY,
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Castleknock, Dublin 15.