You know the kind of thing: pods in classrooms, sneezing into elbows, no arriving at school before 8.55am for fear of mingling. The ‘new normal’, I believe it is called.

But for those lucky kids aged nine and up, they now get to experience the joys of trying to keep a mask on in class all day long.

As a 44-year-old man who wears glasses, wearing a mask is a difficult task, even after all this time.

The glasses consistently steam up on the grocery run. This happens no matter where I balance them on my head. It certainly adds an element of adventure to proceedings when you can’t properly see in front of you in a packed supermarket.

I understand I have to wear a mask because it is the right thing to do. But it is annoying. Saving lives? Sure thing. But it is very annoying, isn’t it?

So can you imagine how annoying it is for a nine-year-old? And how hard it is to police for the school?

I am absolutely 100pc behind pretty much anything that keeps my family, both young and old, safe.

I think masks are a key weapon in this war against a ruthless and clever enemy. Masks keep people safe, as does hand-washing, social distancing and of course, the vaccine.

But when it comes to masks for nine-year-olds, I am not sure it is realistic to expect the kids to hold up their end of the bargain.

It’s just a reality. They are nine-year-old kids – it’s in their nature to be awkward and difficult.

I can’t get my son to wear his gloves on a five-minute stroll to school on a freezing day, so God help anyone trying to get a stubborn kid to mask up for five hours a day.

You’d almost think that installing an air filtration system, funded by the Government, into every classroom in the country might be a better idea.

Clearly the ministers for health and education don’t think so.

To be frank, asking kids that young to wear a mask in school all day is pointless. It is not policeable and offers limited value for all the effort that will be needed to enforce it.

And that is the point: teachers and SNAs will find themselves policing this, at the expense of educating children.

Have we learned nothing from the last two years? Keeping the schools open is an admirable endeavour and greatly appreciated by every parent up and down the country.

No-one wants to go back to the dark days of 2020 and early 2021 when the schools and creches were shut. We are all scarred for life from those periods. It’s like ‘Nam, man, you had to be there to understand it.

But this latest rule regarding facemasks feels poorly planned and a waste of time.

If my kids are next for the mask plan, I will make every effort to get them to wear theirs knowing full well that they will try their best. But even that isn’t good enough.

Trusting children to fight the virus seems like a childish plan, but unfortunately Stephen Donnelly and Norma Foley are determined not to stray from the script.