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THE SITUATION WITH testing and contact tracing for teachers has become “simply untenable”, the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) has said.
In a statement today, the union has sought urgent clarity on a number of matters as the country appears set to be moved to tougher restrictions in the coming days.
The government has indicated it still intends to keep schools open under the kind of Level 4+ restrictions that are expected.
However, the INTO said today that in recent weeks it has become “increasingly concerned that public health precautions for teachers are inadequate”.
The union said many primary teachers have underlying health conditions or have family members whose health is at risk from Covid-19.
“The threat associated with rising levels of infection in communities is leading to apprehension and anxiety among school staff nationwide, especially in counties where level 4 restrictions already apply,” it said.
The INTO said that the desire to keep schools open must be met with a “firm commitment to keep schools safe”, and asked for a public health review to be immediately convened to explore what the new measures mean for schools.
It also called for five measures to be put in place immediately.
This includes the publication of the exact number of school staff who have tested positive since September, with breakdowns by school type, staff member role etc.
The union also wants a clear explanation on the difference between a close contact and a casual contact in a school setting, along with an urgent review of the policy on the wearing of face coverings.
It also calls for “additional suite of protective measures for primary and special schools in areas where level 4 of the government’s framework applies including the immediate banning of extra-curricular activities, the restriction of parents/guardians congregating at school grounds to a maximum of 15 mask-wearing adults at any given time, a strict no visitors policy for all schools and the provision of funding to ensure that teachers and pupils can engage with remote learning”.
INTO general secretary John Boyle said the union has engaged constructively with government throughout the process of re-opening schools, but that clear action was needed now given the deteriorating situation in the country.
“Despite our best efforts, government has failed to deliver a fit for purpose, fast-tracked, sector-specific testing and tracing system in the seven weeks since schools reopened,” Boyle said.
“This has resulted in principal teachers regularly having to initiate out of hours contact with families and staff members when they have been notified of positive tests.
This situation is simply untenable. If our primary and special schools are to fully reopen after mid-term break and operate safely next month, government must ensure that the necessary protective measures and protocols are put in place within the next fortnight.
In a statement to TheJournal.ie, a Department of Education spokesperson said that evidence to date suggests schools have re-opened safely since the end of August.
The spokesperson said: “As of 15 October, latest data from public health shows that 8164 students and teachers have been involved in mass testing. This has resulted in the detection of 136 additional cases. This equates to a positive detection rate of 1.7 per cent of additional detected cases.
“In other words, where mass testing has been carried out of close contacts in the school setting of confirmed cases, this has only resulted in a small number of additional confirmed cases, not all of which are transmitted within the school setting. This rate is remaining very low despite the comparable positive detection rate in the community continuing to rise over 6%.”
The spokesperson said there has been no significant change in the proportion of total weekly Covid-19 cases among school-aged children before August and since the re-opening of schools.
The department has worked with public health to ensure “testing is prioritised for those close contacts within the school community of confirmed Covid-19 cases”.
“Covid 19 test appointments are issued as a priority for school based close contacts through a specific schools referral process within the HSE,” the spokesperson said. “At the point of testing, swabs for the school group are sent to the laboratory as a ‘red flagged’ batch to be processed as a priority on delivery to the laboratory.”
The spokesperson added that a number of other supports are available to schools, and said a recent round of visits from inspectors to schools has found them to be “generally positive” in terms of how they’re implementing Covid-19 response plans.
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I’m sorry now but we’re all worried and it’s not like other sectors are being given top class Ppe and resources..I’ve worked through it since day one and it ain’t getting any easier but we have to work through it
@Craig Ruth: and do you teach 30 pupils in a small class?
@Craig Ruth: so its just begrudgery thats your problem? Teachers also worked through the lockdown. Dont let that fact ruin the narrative in your head.
@Craig Ruth: I’m sorry, but can people who don’t work in schools stop pretending to now what it’s actually like I work with no social distancing, no mask mandate for students and to be excluded from contact tracing even when there’s a confirmed case in the class. Stop using children as an ideological weapon against school staff.
@Craig Ruth: Most teachers never stopped working either from what I understand…working online is still work, just as much if not more imo…people need to stop pretending online work is not real and get modern
@Dan: come on now Dan – there was very little work done by teachers during lockdown! I’ve heard a handful of stories that some teachers did structure work but most did a random catch up call if that.
@Conor CoCo Moroney: she just said ‘we’re all worried’ why so defensive?
@Marguerite Dorgan: nope but I work in a supermarket with hundreds of people passing through every day. Most adults are more ignorant than the kids at least if u tell a kid to wear a mask they will. When things went into lockdown in March and no doubt again in a few weeks people would step over me to get what they want off the shelf and have very little thought about me or my family but only wait to scream at me for not having product on shelf
@Alan: oh well if you’ve heard a handful of stories then clearly you’re an expert! Do you even have children or are you just listening to gossip and rumours?
@Marguerite Dorgan: I have sympathy and understanding for all groups dealing with large amounts of people. Teachers, retail, supermarket workers, food processors , chemists all face the same infection probability which is far more than those in small offices with no public contact. It’s not a teachers only concern.
@Craig Ruth: Not the same Craig, you are not sitting in small classroom with the same 30 kids all day. Your risks are valid but to a much lessor degree than a teachers. We all know the risks associated with being in close proximity with the same people in an enclosed area for over 15 minutes. That’s not you.
@Craig Ruth: but that’s the difference you see, the people are passing through. Not sitting in the same room as you for hours. Primary school kids don’t wear masks, you’re thinking of secondary schools. This article is referring to primary schools. I can imagine it is really frustrating working in a supermarket though as so many people are ignorant to how they are endangering others. What you’re dealing with at work is tough but it is also tough for teachers being exposed to so many people, namely children who need hands on help throughout the day.
@Isabel Oliveira: I never said teachers were the only concern.
@Marguerite Dorgan: Or 150 if you are a senior school teacher?
@Alan: my kids teachers were brilliant during lockdown doing lesson plans, zooming and generally keeping in touch with the kids. What more did you want them to do?
@Teresa Ryan: That’s a quare statement!! Something tells me if that was earlier in the feed you’d have been eat alive!!!
@Dan: what work did they do! Most parents I know including myself got one hard to follow email a week
@Craig Ruth: “If you tell a kid to wear a mask they will.” Statement alone shows you have no idea what the modern Irish classroom is like.
@Alan: No Alan. Both myself and my partner, like the majority of our colleagues at primary level worked long hours planning and delivering lessons, doing online tutorials, running live quizzes, liasing with pupils and parents, doing staff meetings etc…the list was endless. It regularly started at 9am in the morning and went on late into the night including weekends. All while caring for a 2 year old in our case. These facts don’t fit into your agenda but lets be honest, you couldn’t possibly be expected to understand
@Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin: Well done you but as I said not all teachers did in fact most didn’t. No need to start being insulting because someone disagrees with you
@Alan: You’ve heard that eh, well I’ve heard different so there ya go, am sure loads of others have heard other stuff too.
@Alan: show where you are getting your facts from?
@John Cleary: for god’s sake – the schools shut down in march, and for the following 2/3 monthsschools and teachers didn’t have the experience of working remotely and most kids were left on their own, possibly except exam classes. Then there was the 2/3 month break. No performance checks were made, no benchmark was performed and no feedback from parents or students was pulled together. We get it, your job is to teach to groups of children, but stop, stop with the anecdotes about teachers working flat out during the whole pandemic! It’s ridiculous, easily disproven and irrelevant to any discussion about where resources should go.
@Alan: I haven’t insulted anyone. Those outside the profession couldn’t possibly comprehend what teaching in Ireland entails under normal circumstances, let alone understand the challenges teachers faced during lockdown. Without fear of contradiction, given how many teachers I know in a myriad of school, I’ve no hesitation in stating you’re categorically wrong in your assertions. A minority of teachers behaved as you’ve accused them, not a majority. Most went above and beyond.
Health precautions are inadequate. Teachers, like everyone, are effected by restrictions and worried about vulnerable loved ones. Then they arrive to work and are told there is no risk to them being in a small room, with no ventilation with 30 people. Cases have risen since schools opened. Kids bring home illness from schools. Id love to know why no effort was made to open schools safely. I suppose its the same effort that was made to prepare the health service. Ordinary people get the brunt of gov uselessness.
Teachers are public servants and need to get on with it.
They all got fully paid for the first lock down. No wonder they want to close schools. If they had to go on social welfare they might think differently
We gotta keep the country going. There has been no surge in kids with COVID or clusters proven to be spread in schools. If there was the lockdown obsessed NPHET would have the schools locked down too.
@Nioe: They still worked, just online, we need to think in modern terms, online classrooms are just a busy if not busier
@Nioe: Not once have I seen any spokesperson demand the schools closed, could you link to that please?
@Nioe: They’ve got to get on with it? Why not adress the legitimate concerns, find a way to solve them and make schools safe. If someone comes to you and says there workplace is unsafe, telling someone to just get on with it is morally bankrupt. Just spit it out and say you don’t like teachers and stop using this pandemic as a front to punish them
@Conor CoCo Moroney: This pandemic could last for another 4 years, if they move online now, will they stay online for the next 4 years?
@Spartacus Ireland: very few teachers did a 7 hour day online. Seriously? They sent some group emails, got a response back from less than 20% of students and did a few zoom calls. And were on full salary, not covid 350. If teachers insist on closing schools, then they must move to the new pandemic rates, the same as all the shop workers who did put their lives at risk to keep us in food, some of whom may now be laid off on €300 a week at best.
@Paul Whitehead: Again can you please show me where any spokesperson or media briefing for teachers where they have insisted on schools closing. Thanks.
@Paul Whitehead: That’s rubbish. 99% of teachers were putting in more hours when they were online in terms of correcting/prepping, if your child had a negative experience I apologise on teacher’s behalf but suggesting teachers should come down to €350 when they are still working from home is ludicrous, there are plenty of other companies working from home where I can guarantee some employees are doing nothing, should they come down to €350? Absolutely no need for teacher bashing, we got thrown into a situation we were not prepared for and as you can imagine delivering lessons online is not easy or particularly entertaining, but it is what it is and we did our best, I was closed last week and was wrecked come last class online.
I’m a Secondary School Teacher: In just the first two hours of my day today I shared classroom spaces with a combined total of 95 people. Just a face mask, poor ventilation & difficulty distancing. If any of those 95 people present with Symptoms in the next week I won’t count as a close contact. If I was working in any other setting I would be, & what’s more: given the number if contacts I have for prolonged periods on a weekly basis, I would be considered a substantial risk. Unions & teachers are not looking to close schools, what we want is clarification as to why public health advice doesn’t seem to apply to schools? Surely students & teachers are entitled to the same consideration as everyone else: nothing more, or any special treatment of any kind, just the same.
@Joan: Stop your whinging and get on with it. Are you teachers looking to extract more money from the taxpayer.
Public health advice doesn’t apply to our medics. hospitals, courts, supermarkets and numerous other work places who have to just get on with it.
@Teresa Ryan: if I was in a hospital I would be up to my neck in PPE & I certainly wouldn’t have contact with a couple of hundred people a daily basis; court cases are being heard behind closed doors & remotely via video link & retail has implemented restricted numbers in shops & supermarkets as well as perspex at tills & again, nobody in retail is expected to spend prolonged periods in. Close contact with any other person. All these measures have been implanted to ensure work places are safe. Why is it too much to ask that schools be given the same consideration.
@Joan: Please excuse typos!
@@Teresa Ryan: if I was in a hospital I would be up to my neck in PPE & I certainly wouldn’t have contact with a couple of hundred people on a daily basis; court cases are being heard behind closed doors & remotely via video link & retail has implemented restricted numbers in shops & supermarkets as well as perspex at tills & again, nobody in retail is expected to spend prolonged periods in close contact with any other person. All these measures have been implemented to ensure that work places are safe. Why is it too much to ask that schools be given the same consideration.
@Joan: wonder which of the PUP payments you will be getting?
@Joan: you can have the same conditions as others as long as you accept the pandemic max of €300 a week.
@Paul Whitehead: Why, did she say anywhere to close schools? No, she just asked for some social distancing and more ppe, the same conditions as other workers not on the PUP. Yourself and Sally are made for each other.
@Joan: I don’t think you get how many people go through a hospital. And what do you mean if one of the students get it you wouldn’t be a close contact? If a student has it or not, you should not be within 2m of any student at second level, and would not be a close contact. I’m really worried about the personal responsibility of some of the teachers in here.
@Brynþór Patrekursson: how do we stay 2m away from students? and if you bothered to open your ears you’d realise that’s the entire complaint from teachers… that we can spend 6 hours in an unventilated room with a symptomatic child who tests positive and NOT be considered a close contact of the child. Why one rule for schools and a different one for the rest of society
@Brynþór Patrekursson: You’re right, I should not be within two meters of any student according to public health advice – but the advice to schools is: in a classroom one metre is acceptable. Personal responsibility doesn’t come into it; there isn’t a classroom in the country that can facilitate a distance of two metres at all times & there isn’t a hope on corridors. These are the conditions unions are concerned about. Public health regulations – except for schools.
@Brynþór Patrekursson: ‘you should not be within 2m of any student at second level’ – And there we go, people commenting with not one iota of knowledge. One classroom I was in today had 26 students, some less than 1m away, as there was no choice, two velux windows that can’t be reached to open. There is no social distancing, impossible in some cases, that’s why there are questions from the union. One group out of nine, 24+ in each class, not enough staff at lunch or break to control the crowds, buses full with no masks, the list is endless, so go shove your personal responsibility you pompous yolk.
I’ve heard all types of unions come out with these questions and worries, but the teachers’ unions only have articles on thejournal. It is complete clickbait as the teacher bashers come out in force and the teachers defend themselves, leading to comments and clicks. It is not fair on the teaching profession. These very bashers then leave their most precious ones with the people they hate every day. Strange one that. Anyway, we should leave these comment sections on teachers as shrines to the twisted.
Why the worry now? Is it because others are being asked to work from home?? I’ve seen shop workers and post staff etc in small crowded spaces with little or no protection just getting on with it as they’re considered essential
@Alan: there is no other worker in this state being put into a confined, unventilated space with between 25/30 others for a period of 5 hours. I believe teachers want to do their best to keep schools open but have legitimate concerns that need to be dealt with.
@offtheball: unventilated? Come on now don’t be silly
@offtheball: yes there is
Wake up and get off your pulpit
@Alan: family member works in a secondary school. Older building built in 80s. Temporary room errected on stage. No ventilation bar door leading out. Windows 4-5m above cannot be opened. Class are there for 4×40 min periods in a row. Not a secondary school teacher myself but it sounds like they are like sitting ducks to be honest. I wouldnt be happy as a parent of these children. Over 1000 students in the school. Unventilated? I think so.
I really wasn’t happy with the distance learning my kids received last time. It was below par imo. But I do feel it was a learning curve for all involved & if we were to go online I would hope it would be better.
That being said, I haven’t seen any teachers looking for schools to close, just a safer work environment! Why all the teacher bashing? There was 41 clusters in schools last week alone & 352 in private homes. You can’t tell me some of that 352 wasn’t caused by the 41 in schools. The fact is, right now schools are not as safe as we are being told & teachers have every right to fight for better working conditions
@Cliodhna Lynch: finally some sense being spoken! I think as teachers we are all aware that online learning wasn’t brilliant last year but we were thrown in at the deep end. Schools have invested heavily in courses for us to up skill this year with the idea being if we go into lockdown we can provide a higher quality zoom class. We don’t want to close, we just want protection in schools!
The aim should always be for schools to stay open for education, social skills and overall well being. However, why not listen to the legitimate concerns from school staff and try to SOLVE them instead of the mindless teacher bashing. This does nothing but divide us, which is convenient for the government. Issues to do with PPE, failure of meaningful contact tracing etc are real problems that need to be fixed. Teachers aren’t the enemy, the virus is.
Which is more reasonable?, 1. to accept that Corona does not spread in a classroom full of young human beings and some older teachers (who have the same temperature and genetic make-up), 2. or to believe that a virus somehow avoids teachers and students and doesn’t infect them or others they come in contact with…
Very misleading photo. It looks nothing like the overcrowded classrooms look in reality.
There’s never a mention of the early years sector, where there is ZERO social distancing or ppe, getting coughed on directly, wiping noses and cleaning bodily fluids daily since June. Never any recognition.
I do respect teachers but the early years sector is never given the respect or care it deserves!
As sure as night follows day the teachers are first out of the traps complaining again.
Top class PPE we’ve masks from Dealz and less than metre SD world class resources
Totally inadequate
No evidence in schools that kids are effected or clusters accumulating from schools, So whats the problem, Ok its a teachers choice to excise caution and abide by the HSE, so if they don’t want to teach, they should go on the pup covid payment because technically they not sick there only preventing themselves from the virus like any of us would do, but they (teachers)need to except the fact when they don’t work its on to the Covid pandemic payment.
If you gave the Teachers another pay rise they would have no issue.
Covid19 will be with us for a few years so get on with what we the taxpayers are paying you to do
I’ve worked right through this in a similar setting as Teachers would with no issues or concerns
Sick to death of listening to them ‘ but of course they have the backing of a government who are mostly teachers
Those who can’t do …..teach ……so very true
@Mark Walsh: you’ve 30 people per hour in 49m2 room rotating on the hour until you meet hundreds in a week for hour at a time in your job, with no perspex screens and a reusable cloth mask?
@Mark Walsh: if you told them staying at home now would come out of summer holidays next year they’d be in quick enough!
@Mise: we really need to get SuperValu staff in secondary schools, as they have served thousands of different people daily with similar protections, and seem to manage without unions threatening to treat down the fabric of society.
@Brynþór Patrekursson: supermarket staff serve people for less than a minute at a time from behind a perspex screen, they don’t sit with them for hours. 15 mins face to face contact with an individual is the timeframe we are given for transmission
Stop the whinging and get on with it. Government should just deem them essential workers otherwise how are the medics going to if the schools are out.
The teacher bashing is unreal. We worked online last year just as other’s did yet it is us who get the abuse. I realise not all teachers might have engaged with students and that isn’t good enough, but if you think everyone who is working from home in other sectors is working full hours or to 100% productivity, you’re having a laugh.
We don’t want schools to close, online teaching is not fun for the kids or us, we want protection and we aren’t getting it. I realise frontline staff are under huge pressure and I have sympathy for them, they are doing fantastic, but working in that sector and education are two completely different areas.
Are we being selfish looking for more protection? Yes, but you have to be in times like this. If you teach teaching is easy then do it yourself.
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