THE scale of school closures due to Covid-19 is without precedent. Some emergency shut downs caused by weather aside, but the last major period of disruption was during the Ulster Workers' Council strike of 1974. Education Correspondent Simon Doyle hears from teachers about its impact.
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UNIVERSAL school closures are infrequent. The blanket lockdown caused by coronavirus is unparalleled.
Schools are now shut for "normal business" until after the summer. There are no classroom activities, no exams, no lunches, no play, no transport.
There is limited education supervision provided to young people whose parents are key workers and are not in a position to make alternative childcare arrangements.
Some teachers remain in schools offering online learning to their pupils who are working from their own homes.
The numbers physically attending are very small.
Education has always found a way to persevere - even through the Troubles, by and large.
Children and teachers have enjoyed, until now, more than four decades of almost uninterrupted service.
The last major stoppage in living memory was during the Ulster Workers' Council (UWC) strike of 1974.
It was called by unionists opposed to the Sunningdale Agreement, signed the previous December 1973, and succeeded in bringing down the power-sharing assembly and executive.
Schools and school transport both appeared on a list of services deemed essential by the UWC. But, many parents kept their children away from schools during periods of heightened tension.
Some GCE exams were affected, with O and A practicals postponed. The Irish News reported teachers being asked to supply an assessment of the practical work of each candidate.
People recalled that schools tried to remain open for the most part. In rural areas this was less of an issue. In Belfast, it varied depending on the part of the city and who was manning the barriers.
In some areas, teachers did get through, although staff from the Catholic sector often avoided the barriers or turned back.
Jim Clarke, a retired principal and former head of the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS), was a young teacher at La Salle in west Belfast in 1974.
Mr Clarke said his school continued to operate as normal but staff trying to reach work often encountered difficulties.
"The closures now are everywhere. In 1974, communities that were Catholic were able to continue to educate," he said.
"A problem was that as the strike progressed, petrol became rationed. Key workers got petrol. I got petrol, not because I was a teacher, but because my sister was a nurse, and I had to promise to bring her to work.
"It was a mix and match. People were stopped at barriers and turned away. Once teachers got through, it was down to communities to attend.
"I can remember being stopped at Sandy Row and told to go back. There was no point in arguing. Some were masked, but not all of them. I just backtracked and drove past them down side streets."
The late Henry Sinnerton was a teacher at Orangefield High School during the strike. He shared his experiences at an event in 2014 to mark the fortieth anniversary.
He said his abiding memory was of absolute determination to go to work.
"No one was going to stop me getting to my place of work, despite threats and menace quite clearly in the air, at that time, which could fall upon not just others but myself as well," he said in 2014.
"Orangefield Boys' school's experience reflected similar upset in all schools. We were no different. No thought was given by the politicians or paramiltarists as to how pupils would be affected in their exam season. I suspect they did not know. If they knew I doubt they cared? I suspect too if the young boys had not caused trouble for them in the streets then exams for a whole year group might have passed them by.
"Things were chaotic after UWC called for all schools to close. A BELB statement said `because of low attendances secondary schools had mostly closed', though reports were that in some areas of south and east Belfast schools did manage to operate fairly normally."
The Department of Education called for cooperation to facilitate pupil attendance but it was a matter for individuals in light of the circumstances in their area.
Sean McElhatton was a teacher at the former St Augustine's on Ravenhill Road, which educated children from the Catholic Ormeau, Market and Short Strand areas.
He said every teacher right across the sector shared the same mantra, to keep schools open as normal as possible and circumvent any difficulties.
"It was a terrible time of chaos, civil unrest, tension and worry, but the overriding duty was to keep doing our jobs," he said.
"Our teachers came from a large catchment but we all tried to make our way. Three of us shared a lift to school and I recall us driving along side roads and around barriers to get there. Staff would talk at coffee about which streets they used to get to work.
"Attendances were clearly down but those who could make it did make it, and their parents were very supportive."
Professor Tony Gallagher from Queen's University Belfast was a pupil at St Malachy's College in north Belfast the early 1970s.
"I don't have too much memory of the impact on schooling. My mother was a nurse and I remember she had to go and get 'permission' from some loyalist paramilitaries to keep going to work in the Mater, and there was a constant fear that something awful might happen and we would have to make a bolt for the border," he said.
"Losing a few days in school seemed less consequential in a context like that.
"Where we lived, the place was pretty much under the control of loyalist paramilitaries and people couldn't move around much without encountering them. I remember being told afterwards by schoolmates in west Belfast that life continued much as normal there, apart from everyone largely staying in the area for the duration."
