Ministers would be extremely reluctant to change plans to bring children back to school full time this month, Northern Ireland’s education minister has said.
It is a priority across the Stormont Executive table, Peter Weir added.
Face coverings will not be required in the classroom but will be needed for around 80,000 pupils on school transport.
Mr Weir said: “If there are measures that as an Executive we have to row back on, there would be extreme reluctance for education to be one of them.
“Ministers outside my department take the view that this is a priority.”
The Executive has confirmed that the new school term will begin on August 24 for Primary 7, Year 12 and Year 14 pupils and for vulnerable children across all year groups.
All other pupils will return to school from the week commencing August 31.
The return to school will be on a full-time basis of five days a week for all pupils, including those who attend special schools.
Face coverings are not generally recommended for routine use in schools, the Education Department has said.
Staff and pupils may wish to use them during the routine school day and this is acceptable.
Mr Weir told his Stormont scrutiny committee he had no difference of opinion with the chief scientific adviser Professor Ian Young over the wearing of coverings in school.
The DUP minister said: “The importance of education in society will mean that the best course of action is that full-time return, with as much mitigation as possible.
“No-one knows how the future is going to develop in relation to that.”
The education minister said siblings should sit together on buses to minimise mixing.
Mr Weir said a similar approach has been used in several other jurisdictions, including the Republic of Ireland, and that it is a matter of minimising risk rather than ruling it out entirely.
He said: “Is there anything that is going to be risk free? I think the answer has to be no.”
SDLP Assembly member Daniel McCrossan said teachers wanted to go back to the classroom.
He added there was a higher level of infection in the community now than when schools closed in March.
