Older teachers in high-risk group should work from home until vaccinated – ASTI

Teachers in the high-risk categories with a history of cancer, heart or other serious illnesses must be facilitated to work from home until they are safely vaccinated, the president of the second level teaching union, ASTI, has said.

In her address to the union's annual conference Ann Piggott also said pregnant teachers must "undeniably be facilitated in remote working for the remainder of the school year and in the future if they risk being exposed to Covid".

Ms Piggott said teachers in high-risk categories and teachers in the 60 to 64-year age group had been told to return to “choc-a-block” classrooms from April 12th.

She said the Government’s decision to change its Covid-19 vaccination schedule to an age-based system represented “a brutal and sudden kick in the teeth for teachers and other public sector workers” and must be reversed..

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She said the chair of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee had last week said a person aged 65 years had 70 times the risk of death as a younger person aged 20 - 35 years.

“Presumably the risk to people aged 60 to 64 must also be very high. So why are teachers in this age bracket being instructed to returning to choc - a- block classrooms, along with other people in the high risk category who suffer from cancer, heart failure, chronic kidney disease as examples. People in the high-risk categories must be facilitated to work from home until they are safely vaccinated.”

Scheme

Ms Piggott said that in changing the vaccination scheme “total disregard has been shown for the frontline workers in this country who come face to face with hundreds of people in the course of essential work where exposure to illness is unavoidable”.

“The latest promised ease of restrictions will allow only two people who are vaccinated to meet indoors, but in under-sized classrooms, the parallel universe continues: 33 can meet without vaccinations. “

“Less than two metres is unsafe in society, but one metre is acceptable in schools, and if masks are worn, close contacts have not been of concern during tracking and tracing of positive cases. Hundreds of people swirl and circle in crammed and overcrowded situations in schools daily.”

Ms Piggott urged the introduction of a parallel vaccination system for teachers and other frontline workers alongside the programme for the general public.

She suggested that there may have to be vaccine boosters administered in the months ahead and she feared that teachers and special needs assistants could be left behind again.

Ms Piggot told the conference that the accredited grades model for the Leaving Cert was not an option favoured by the ASTI.

“However, it is here again, results will be computed with no uniform schemes, in different ways, using diverse standards in separate schools. Subsequent standardisation may lead to school results being readjusted downwards.”

Future changes

She said any future changes to the senior cycle curriculum must both enhance what is currently working well and address acknowledged problems.

“The externally assessed Leaving Certificate has high levels of public trust and is essential for maintenance of high educational standards.”

She also maintained that an entry model to higher education which did not rely exclusively on the Leaving Cert needed to be developed.

“We are not against reform and are in favour of changes such as oral exams for modern languages and would be open for discussion on timelines for project and practical work, but if we change the bathwater, we do need to ensure that the baby is protected and nurtured.”

Ms Piggott said workload had increased for all teachers and the nature of the job had changed negatively, particularly since the recession in 2009.

“Extra mandatory unpaid supervision during lunch time, and substitution of classes, with multiple meetings after school are extra impositions. After school hours are spent preparing and correcting; online learning has added more layers - preparation for online classes, and incessant corrections arriving online has meant no work life balance.”

She said school principals had had a hard year and that the additional burdens of the last 12 months was likely to see many “cutting short their career span due to exhaustion and overload”.