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Teaching unions have called for clarity on Covid-19 isolation measures, ahead of the reopening of schools in the coming days.
Michael Gillespie, general secretary of the Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI), said that public health advice was needed about the duration of self-isolation for people infected with Covid-19, so teachers and students will know if they can return to school.
“We need to get an idea of the numbers in schools that will be missing,” he told Newstalk Breakfast on Tuesday.
“A lot of members couldn’t get PCR tests, but they did test positive with antigen tests, they had symptoms.
“There’s a lack of clarity as to how many days they need to isolate – is it from their PCR test, is it from their antigen test – that will have a big effect on school reopenings – we need that sort of certainty,” he said.
Mr Gillespie said students in exam years and those in special education classes needed to be prioritised, to “make sure they’re able to return if there are staffing issues in schools,” he said.
The union official said it was too early to say if calls for a staggered return to classrooms would work. The situation was not “one size fits all” as schools would have different levels of attendance, he said.
Mr Gillespie said that the TUI had always advocated for disadvantaged students and they were very much aware of the impact of school closures on such students.
The general secretary of ASTI, Kieran Christie, has said teachers are committed to the reopening of schools in a coherent and sensible fashion that will work for everybody, but there is “considerable amount of unease” at the spead of Omicron.
“We feel that additional measures with regard to health and safety are and will be necessary,” he said.
“We want clarity in relation to the level of risk assessment that needs to be done in the context of the Omicron variant because we haven’t had an opportunity to look at how it operates in second-level schools and whether or not the mitigations that are in schools are sufficient and will hold up.”
Principals fear that anywhere from 10 to 50 per cent of teachers and students may be absent in schools on Thursday.
“Omicron is so radically different that it demands and it requires a whole new revision, or at least review, of everything that we’ve been doing and to supplement it and add to it so that we can get ourselves out from under this horrible pandemic once and for all,” he said.
“If everybody is allowed to walk in the door on Thursday morning in the hope that it’ll all be well, it probably won’t be in most cases and we’ll have chaos”.
Union meeting
Minister for Education Norma Foley is to meet with unions and school management bodies on Tuesday, in advance of the planned reopening of schools on Thursday after the Christmas break.
The Ombudsman for Children, Dr Niall Muldoon, has called for the Government to explore “all options” to keep students in classrooms, stating closing schools could not be “our default response”.
Dr Muldoon said the most vulnerable children and those with special needs would be “disproportionately affected” from closures. The negative impact of school closures on children’s learning and social development were “wider and deeper than missing a few weeks of classes,” he said.
The Ombudsman said “every safeguard” and safety measure should be exhausted, rather than “retreating” to previous responses used this time last year.
“In the coming weeks there will be situations where classes or schools may have to move to online learning due to staff shortages,” he said. Or cases where children self-isolating at home needed to be provided with learning materials.
“Teachers and everyone in school communities must be supported to make this happen. They should also be provided with the equipment needed to ensure that schools remain as safe as possible for all children and staff,” he said.
On Monday night, the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) said it was “deeply concerned” schools may reopen without additional measures being put in place to protect students and staff. “This would constitute an unacceptable risk in the context of the Omicron wave,” the union said.
The ASTI said it will be proposing a staggered reopening in which it said face-to-face teaching with exam years should be prioritised.
It is also calling for HEPA filtration units to be rolled-out to schools, adding it “beggars belief that almost two years into this pandemic this basic facility is not in place where necessary”.
The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) has said it will be necessary to utilise more student teachers to provide substitute cover for classes in the coming weeks, as a result of staff members being out on Covid-related leave.
Concern from teaching unions over the reopening of schools comes amid a surge in cases of the Covid-19 Omicron variant, which has led to large numbers of people self-isolating, either with the virus or as close contacts.
The National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) is to meet on Thursday to discuss the Covid-19 situation, with public health officials concerned over the pressure the latest wave is placing on the health service.