Hybrid learning is a reality for us moving forward, Hemara said.
"We have learned a lot, and it will be a shame to move backwards.
"But the challenge is, once again, the equity gap because not everyone has access.
"A big structural change would have to take place and we have known that for the last two years."
In September 2020, the Government announced a $49 million expansion of the Te Mana Tūhono programme, allowing the ministry to offer all state and state-integrated schools the opportunity to upgrade their information and communications technology network equipment, and access cybersecurity support by 2024.
According to MoE figures, in the 10 days to April 4, 671 students and 93 teachers - 181 students and 20 teachers since Friday - across Tai Tokerau were infected with Covid-19 in the community.
These cases were reported by 39 schools and 37 early learning services in Northland.
Epidemiologist and paediatrician Dr Amanda Kvalsvig from the University of Otago said the true extent of Covid-19 transmission cannot be known because no system was set up for recording Omicron outbreaks in New Zealand schools.
"Parent and community groups are noting a huge number of households where a school-aged child was the first in the family to get sick."
Kvalsvig said there were many drivers of Omicron spread in schools: a highly transmissible virus, low levels of vaccination in younger age groups, the slow rollout of ventilation and air filtration equipment in New Zealand classrooms and no masks for years 1-3.
"Schools have always been high-risk settings for passing on coughs and colds and this variant is far more transmissible than those other childhood infections.
"There's strong overseas evidence showing that Covid-19 spreads easily in school settings, and Omicron outbreaks overseas have generated very large numbers of child cases.
"It hasn't been helped by the inflexibility of the education system which has had no strategy in place for moving schools online as the outbreak peaks in each community."
During the height of the Omicron outbreak, Kvalsvig said, the best protection for immunocompromised children might be online learning.
"It'll take time to put protections in place in schools to a level where those children and their families can be reassured that school is a safe environment.
"In a similar way, some children are getting very worried because they have immunocompromised family members at home and those families may also be better off with a temporary shift to online learning.
"The New Zealand policy of 'closing schools as a last resort' has not been a success because it's allowed the Omicron outbreak to spread through schools and into homes. It has not been consistent with 'flattening the curve'."
To reduce Covid-19 transmission in schools, Kvalsvig said a timely shift to online learning would act as a circuit-breaker.
While definitive solutions such as structural changes to school buildings to improve indoor air quality would take time and resources to implement, the long-term benefits for children's health made them worthwhile, said the paediatrician.
"Babies can develop breathing problems with croup-like symptoms that are very distressing for children and their parents.
"One important protection for young children is for the adults and older children around them to be vaccinated.
"Another is to improve the quality of indoor ventilation and air filtration in early childhood settings, particularly in sleep areas.
"We face a difficult winter with Covid-19 circulating, along with all the other winter respiratory infections.
"Effective short-term solutions for winter 2022 include high-quality masks, air filters in classrooms (HEPA filters or Corsi-Rosenthal boxes to filter virus particles)."
