The SDLP's Justin McNulty pops up on an audio connection.

He wants to know if any evaluation has been made of the delivery of education during the school closures, including support for pupils with special educational needs.

The minister, Peter Weir, says the Education Training Inspectorate (ETI), which normally carries out school inspections, "has been keeping an eye on this" and has been monitoring the issues around remote learning.

There is no formal evaluation going on of the distance learning, permanent secretary Derek Baker says, adding that he doesn't know what the process for such an evaluation would be.

Image source, Getty Images

Mr McNulty also asks about the distribution of equipment by the schools to children who not have access to the necessary tech.

"To the best of my knowledge the answer is no, unless its happening on an individual schools basis," says Mr Baker.

The minister says some schools have been issuing packs rather than using online learning.

Mr McNulty asks if any thought has been given to how the "lights will be switched on" when the time comes to start reopening schools.

Mr Weir says a small group has been looking at this but "there's not going to be a swift or early movement in terms of reactivating moving towards being normal" and it seems to be "some way away".

The DUP's Robin Newton, who joins the meeting by audio link, asks the minister about the letter he sent to schools about vulnerable children and the responses received so far.

The minister sent the letter on the 8 April and says he will "keep the committee updated on responses" but says "given the fact it’s Wednesday and we’ve had the Easter weekend it’s possibly too soon to get responses".

He also says that a "large part" of the letter was "to urge schools to reach out to those pupils".

"It's not one where they will write back and say we have done x, y and z," the minister says, "it’s a reminder there is awareness that needs to be there".

Committee chairperson Chris Lyttle asks if there is a waiting list for the children of key workers who have been unable to find places in schools that have remained open.

Derek Baker says the establishment of the Education Authority's helpline and online facilities to help parents to find a suitable school has made this easier to gauge.

"Over the past couple of weeks the number of parents who are contacting that helpline and who are identifying a problem with getting their children placed has fallen".

He says it has fallen from around 270 to an estimated 100.

Image source, NI Assembly

Daniel McCrossan then asks the minister about exam results.

He says there was an announcement about exams two weeks ago in England and asks why it's taking so long here?

Mr Weir replies, "we're in a situation where we have an advantage in Northern Ireland which will help in issues around fairness and getting the right grade for people".

He says the AS to A-Level system in place in Northern Ireland means "the work people do, largely speaking, progresses towards a degree" which he says is not the case in England - "their only real option in these things is purely teacher assessment".

The minister says there is a desire "to make sure we get the fairest prediction" for pupils and so the department has consulted with key stakeholders.

"We felt it was important we got buy-in, which largely speaking is there," says the minister.

"We're on the verge of an announcement," he adds.

"A very imminent announcement on that in the next couple of days."

Image source, Getty Images

Derek Baker, the permanent secretary adds "CCEA (the examinations authority) has done a lot of work on this".

He says the consultation with key stakeholders, as outlined by the minister, was "really, really important".

"They came back with good points," which he says are now being consolidated before an announcement is made.

The SDLP's Daniel McCrossan, who joins the meeting by audio link, asks the minister about special schools and those which "deemed it unsafe to bring the pupils into schools".

He asks, "was it to do with a lack of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) at the time?"

The minister replies that PPE "has not been raised as an issue".

"There is not a special school in Northern Ireland that is closed because of a lack of PPE," he says, adding that the majority of special schools had concerns around the enforcement of social distancing.

The permanent secretary adds, "the feedback from leaders in special schools is there is no demand from parents to open" the schools.

He says this is due to a number of issues, including that a number of "staff are self isolating" and so "they don't have access to the staff that are needed to keep the school open".

He adds, "it’s not because of PPE".

The UUP's Robbie Butler asks about reports of a rise in domestic abuse in recent weeks. He notes that school is often the safest place for children from homes where abuse is taking place.

He says he's aware that we "have children that are on the register for being vulnerable and at risk of various kinds of abuse".

He wants assurances that work is under way in co-operation with the health authorities to ensure that these children are protected.

Image source, NI Assembly

Permanent secretary Derek Baker says the Education Authority is aiming to put together a process to track and keep in contact with vulnerable children on a weekly basis.

The minister has written to school principals to exhort them to maintain contact with vulnerable children, he adds.

Chris Lyttle (below), the committee chair, asks a few supplementary questions about the childcare support package.

He says £12m in support "is extremely welcome" but wants to know the breakdown of the funding per care provider and "when will that funding be received by those providers".

The permanent secretary replies that he "can't answer that questions definitively today".

Mr Baker says he will "look into that and give a report back" to the committee, but he says he has some calculations that are an assumption which can be shared with the committee "in due course, but what pans out in practice could be very different".

Mr Lyttle says the committee would be "very grateful for the written briefing".

Image source, NI Assembly

Mr Weir then explains that the Department of Education can "supply information with the elements of the package we have from a policy point of view, a broad financial point of view".

But he says the Department of Health would be the area to seek more information if "you’re asking issues around admin and implementation of the scheme".

Mr Lyttle then asks if there will be "public liability" for carers and PPE for those setting which remain open.

Mr Weir says there is a "bank of PPE available" and, "on the indemnity side of it" - there was a query issued on this matter and he has information, but says "if we carry on with questions I'll try and look up where I have that information".

Sinn Féin's Catherine Kelly asks about the announcement of a package to support the childcare sector.

"Many settings have had to close their doors in the past few weeks," she says.

Ms Kelly adds that there are questions outstanding that the providers need to have clarified.

"When do you believe the sector will receive more detail on this?" she asks.

Image source, Getty Images

Peter Weir says that £3.6m has been set aside to allow closed childcare settings to "keep their heads above water" for a three-month period.

Derek Baker says the payments will be organised through the health and social care trusts' early years teams.

"The mechanics of it remain a work in progress but hopefully we'll be a lot further on by the end of this week," the official adds.

Image source, NI Assembly

Image source, NI Assembly

The DUP's William Humphrey (above) asks the minister to further explain the 'safer schools' app which he mentioned in his opening remarks.

Mr Weir says it's a "safeguarding" app that helps protect children online.

He says there are a number of links within the app which can help provide "support for mental health and well-being" for young people.

The minister says the app would have been used by schools in the past under a commercial agreement - however the company has now "offered this app, free of charge" to "schools, teachers and parents".

Sinn Féin's Karen Mullan is deputy chairperson. She's now joined the meeting online.

She asks about a problem that emerged in making free school meal payments for people do not have bank accounts.

Ms Mullan wants to know if the families have all been located so they can be provided with food boxes.

Image source, Getty Images

Permanent secretary Derek Baker says there had been 420 families, but this number has now been narrowed down to 166.

He says the department is working with the Home Office to get the money transferred.

Mr Baker says the Department for Communities is providing 3,000 meals to children and young people through co-operation with the Youth Service.

Image source, NI Assembly

The committee then reconvenes and Chris Lyttle, the committee chairperson, takes another quick roll call of those joining via tele-conferencing.

The initial handful have been joined by the DUP'd Robin Newton and Maurice Bradley and Sinn Féin's Karen Mullan.

Derek Baker, the permanent secretary for the Department of Education, joins the meeting by audio link and says he is also joined by the minister.

Peter Weir begins his opening statement by outlining the teacher's pay settlement offer that was put to unions last week.

Image source, NI Assembly

He says "that has resulted in £68m from the budget to be proposed to" the unions, adding "they will go through period of consultation" with their members.

The minister says his department has worked with the Department of Health to make a "major announcement on the childcare and childminding situation".

He says there are now 75 settings where "effectively those settings would be provided with support to stay open for key worker's children".

Mr Weir says he has also written to schools asking them to "reach out to vulnerable children, on the cusp, where they would have local knowledge".

The minister adds that the department has launched the 'safer schools app', which he says was "donated to Northern Ireland by Jim Gamble’s company".

He says "we're in a situation where children are spending a lot more time online" adding that "unfortunately there are people at times, who are looking to exploit crisis for their own ends," and that the app hopes to help prevent that.

Mr Weir then adds that the "exam situation will be coming to conclusion very quickly".

They're running ahead of schedule and the witnesses are not ready so Chris Lyttle calls an adjournment for a couple of minutes.

Back soon.

Committee chairperson Chris Lyttle gets business under way by calling out to members joining by audio link.

They're pretty thin on the ground - only the SDLP's Daniel McCrossan and Sinn Féin's Catherine Kelly reply from the ether.

The UUP's Robbie Butler and the DUP's William Humphrey are in the senate chamber with Mr Lyttle.

Image source, NI Assembly

Welcome to our live coverage of the Northern Ireland Assembly on this sunny April morning.

We’ve got two important meetings for you today – both reflecting the current state of the Covid-19 crisis.

This morning, the top official at the Department of Education, Derek Baker, will be briefing MLAs on how the crisis is affecting schools.

And this afternoon, we have a meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Covid-19 Response - this is basically the Assembly meeting in stripped-back emergency format.

They will be hearing from the Health Minister, Robin Swann.

The Education Committee starts at 09:45. Do stay with us.

Image source, Getty Images