SCHOOLS have been praised for their flexible and innovative approach to supporting remote learning for pupils.
All schools are now officially shut for normal teaching until after the summer.
Limited education supervision is being provided for children whose parents are key workers and cannot make alternative arrangements.
Many teachers are now delivering distance and online learning.
As staff, pupils and parents adjust to the changes, the Education Authority (EA) and Department of Education have given their initial assessment.
The EA said that 60,000 individual students and teachers were accessing the EA Education Network portal from home daily.
Within a 24-hour period, there were 700,000 emails sent between students and teachers outside of school.
Student visits to the EA Education Network portal from home per day have increased ten-fold in less than two weeks - from 8,000 to 80,000.
"Schools have been flexible and innovative in their planning, and support for remote learning of children and young people," an EA spokeswoman said.
"In many cases, there has been a generous and collegial approach to the sharing of resources and expertise across schools.
"We are hearing from schools and from parents that, due to this work, remote learning is going well, and we will continue to monitor in the time ahead to better understand how learning is taking place."
The department was also applauded schools' efforts.
"The department recognises the hard work and continuing dedication of all school staff - teaching and non-teaching - towards their learners and the efforts they have gone to in preparing a wide range of vital resources including: homework and activity packs; classes for key workers' children; laptops; online counselling support and school meals," a spokeswoman said.
"Individual teachers, schools and other education stakeholders have also been generous in their support of each other through sharing lesson planning, providing step by step guides to and courses on digital learning, and free access to a range of high quality resources."
Meanwhile, there was a slight rise in the number of children attending schools on Monday - up to 697 from 686 on Friday.
The number of schools open on Monday was 406, down from 449 on Friday.
The highest number of young people in any one school was 23.
A list of schools that are open each day is being published on the department's website.
Education Minister Peter Weir said schools were only open as a last resort option for vulnerable children and the children of key workers who cannot be accommodated elsewhere during the day.
"To date, the number of children in schools for supervised learning remains low and I am grateful that parents and carers are acting responsibly by sourcing alternative arrangements," he said.
"However, I am aware of a small number of cases where key workers' children have not been able to access school premises. We must all play our part in supporting those people who are at the frontline of dealing with this current crisis. I must stress that only one parent/carer needs to be a key worker for the child.
"Where possible, we would encourage schools to continue to look after critical workers’ children and vulnerable children throughout the Easter holidays and consider whether weekend provision can be facilitated. This will be kept under review."
::
CASE STUDY - LISMORE COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL
LISMORE is a co-educational Catholic school in Craigavon catering for the full range of academic abilities.
It is providing access to online learning resources for its almost 1,200 pupils and their parents.
It has a dedicated section of its website designed to help students access the resources made available by their subject teachers.
Over the last three weeks the school, which is "valued and connected by the local community", has changed its focus.
It has moved from having responsibility for whole school improvement - promotion of activities, celebrating success, information - to catering for the needs of the wider school community.
This means providing reliable communication to help keep people safe during challenging times.
Parents and pupils are looking towards the school for support and guidance and it has responded by illustrating excellent leadership.
This week it launched Pastoral Classrooms for each year group where students can express how they are feeling, problems they may have or a concern.
There is a team on standby to support including form tutor, head of year, key stage manager and vice principal.
It has also identified a list of students who are most vulnerable, and its safeguarding team is in regular contact to ensure they are being cared for.
