Okay, been banging this drum all week, so apologies if you've heard this one before, but, the IT actually did a service yesterday by pointing to the disruption the current Covid-19 wave/surge/whatever term is applicable is causing in education. I'd already noted that to me it looks like we're heading into a patchwork environment in terms of work and education. Given there's no immunity from reinfection and the virus spreads extremely rapidly and widely I can't see how it is possible not to have large numbers of people out - staff, students, workers, at any given time across a year.

And so - to judge from the interview with a principal of a National School in Dublin, it appears to be.

Going to quote a bit from this because it sheds an important light.

Last week school principal Enda McGorman received word that four of his teachers were out for Covid reasons. The following morning, the number had doubled to eight.

"This is every bit as bad as it was last January and December, if not worse," says McGorman, principal of Mother of Hope National School, Littlepace in Dublin 15.

This week the 450-pupil school had a third of staff out of action. As a result, it had to divert support teachers for special needs pupils into mainstream teaching roles to prevent classes being sent home.

And;

The school, like many others across the State, has struggling to keep its doors open during the latest Covid wave. But the rolling nature of school disruption is raising fresh concerns over the long-term scale of learning loss among pupils.

"This feels different," says McGorman. "The repeated disruption is massively damaging for schools and pupils . . . we're seeing staff getting repeat infections now. As soon as some recover, others are off.

"At least during the winter we had substitute teachers available to us. Now, they are back in college or on placement, where they're not available to work as substitutes. Even the substitute panel of teachers, which is supposed to provide cover, has been hit by Covid."

And the result? The curriculum is an aspiration in that sort of context. Education is broken up and disrupted. And there's also illness.

And:

Páiric Clerkin of the Irish Primary Principals' Network says that while Covid is not making headlines, the disruption in schools is very real. "Schools are under the exact same pressure as were during the height of the crisis," says Clerkin.

Yet the government, to judge from the interview with the Taoiseach yesterday, seems, well, disinterested in how this is evolving. Because it's not just schools and education, it's across the board. Some areas of activity within the society and economy are able to absorb this disruption. But one would have to wonder how it works overall. Or doesn't.