Teachers prepare for strike over Covid safety concerns

Dublin: Teachers in Ireland are in dire straits even when Covid spreads. The teachers’ biggest concern is that they are under Covid threat and are forced to teach in crowded classrooms and there are no adequate safety precautions in schools.

The Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) is preparing for the strike to protest the lack of adequate security arrangements and to raise concerns about the safety of teachers.

The teachers had raised many issues at the ASTI central executive meeting about the concerns aroused after the reopening of schools during the Covid expansion. Teachers say the work in the midst of the Covid threat is of great concern to them.

Teachers also allege ambiguity in schools in ensuring physical distance, ensuring the need for Personal Protective Eequipment (PPE), defining close contact, ensuring comprehensive testing, setting conditions for high-risk teachers, and providing IT resources for students and teachers to facilitate distance learning.

ASTI President Ann Piggott said in a statement that asking teachers to work in a busy classroom would not be allowed and that it would increase the risk. There is also a growing need to prioritize the safety of students and their teachers.

Piggott said teachers reported that, without any consultation with school staff, new work procedures were being implemented. Adequate employment arrangements must be made to ensure safe study or it will adversely affect teachers.

The ASTI said the strike would highlight the difficulties faced by teachers who are forced to work in hazardous conditions and wage inequality.

Secondary schools, which closed in mid-March due to the pandemic, reopened in the last week of August. Since then, teachers have been working under the Covid threat, the ASTI said.