Primary school students may only return to school one day a week if the 2 metre social distancing rules are kept in place.
It would also mean students in secondary could only attend school twice a week.
If it was reduced to one metre primary school students could go to class 50 percent of the time while some secondary schools could return almost at a full-time basis.
Education Minister, Joe McHugh, says the figures show the need for all children to return to the classroom full-time, which may come at the expense of social distancing:
"If we just bring back 20 or 50 per cent of our students in September we could potentially do more damage because of the education neglect and the potential regression."
