A Cork principal says he expects extremely high rates of absence at schools across the country today.
Aaron Wolfe says over 40% of students at Coláiste Éamann Rís in the city stayed at home yesterday due to Covid related reasons and expects that figure to increase today and into next week.
The ASTI said up to 4,500 teachers nationally also missed the first day of the new term.
Speaking to RedFM News, Aaron Wolfe says students would have been better served by a move to online learning.
"There could be more close contacts, there could be more people coming down with the virus or symptoms of the virus.
"It's very uncertain times for schools.
"Of course some students could decide that there was no-one in the building yesterday so they're not going to come in today.
"Looking in to next week and into Monday, we could be seeing similar numbers of absenteeism, there's going to be more close contacts as people socialise over the weekend and mix outside their school group.
"I wouldn't be hopeful that I'd have a full number of students back again.
"I'd be worried about my staffing numbers too, as staff come down with the virus, or symptoms of the virus."
