Teachers unions are warning that they still don’t know what will happen if schools are forced to close down due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

More than one million students are going back to education in the coming days for the first time since March.

Preparations have been underway at the country’s 4,000 schools for a number of weeks, with a range of new measure sin place to protect pupils and staff.

The Taoiseach Micheál Martin with Principal Jim O’Sullivan,at Nagle Secondary Community College in Mahon, Cork, 20-08-2020. Image: Julien Behal/RollingNews

On Newstalk Breakfast with Eamon Torsney this morning, the heads of the Association of Secondary Teachers in Ireland (ASTI) and the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) said their members are nervous but prepared for the challenge.

ASTI General Secretary Ciaran Christy warned that a number of issues still remained unresolved – not least what will happen if a school is forced to shut.

“One of the things that is really disappointing is that the Department of Education has made no plans we are aware of for dealing with a situation where a school or a number of schools or a town might go into lockdown and schools have to close,” he said.

“For instance, we will be demanding that the department should be bulk purchasing laptops for students and teachers to ensure that learning can be maintained.

“Very eminent people in the political world and the medical world are saying we are going to have to live alongside this virus for quite some time so teachers are demanding that the department should be planning for this and be commissioning new school buildings and prefabs and so on.

“Space is very tight in pretty much every school in the country and that kind of planning is not going on so we are putting those demands out there because they are going to have to be met.”

The Taoiseach Micheál Martin with Principal Jim O’Sullivan,at Nagle Secondary Community College in Mahon, Cork, 20-08-2020. Image: Julien Behal/RollingNews

INTO General Secretary John Boyle said the union had requested a review of the public health advice for schools on August 4th and has yet to receive and answer.

“We have had a small review in the sense that we have seen changes since in relation to the wearing of facemasks and transport going to schools but I feel at this stage that we need a full review done in the next number of days – and we were promised that at the beginning of the summer,” he said.

He said there is “huge work underway” at schools around the country to prepare for reopening.

“We are all looking forward to schools reopening but the big question is how long will they stay open,” he said.

“In order for them to stay open it is my strong belief that here has to be contact tracing, there has to be testing front-loaded for education staff and there has to be surveillance of the system, similar to what went on, belatedly, in other spheres, in order to make sure that, as we go into the winter, everybody remains safe.

“Our members are going back onto the front line now, they are nervous about it but it behoves everybody, especially Government, to protect them and to make sure that the virus stays out of schools.

“Keeping it out of schools is really the secret and hopefully that will happen over the next number of weeks.”

A teenager wearing a protective face mask in school in France, 02-06-2020. Image: Aurore Marechal/ABACAPRESS.COM

Mr Christie said a specialised plan must also be put in place for students and teachers who are vulnerable to the virus.

“We are demanding that those students and teachers should be accommodated differently at this stage,” he said. “They should be allowed to work from home.

“These teachers, whatever about their physical health, their mental health at the prospect of going into rooms with lots of students and into schools with lots of students and teachers moving around with only one metre social distancing is a major concern.”

An empty junior infants classroom ready for first day of school children at Gardiner Street Primary School in Dublin. Picture by: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

Mr Boyle said everybody in Ireland must do their part to keep schools open.

“The most important thing I think for anybody listening this morning is that in order for the school system to continue over the winter, people in Irish society are going to have to help us out,” he said. “They are going to have to be paying attention to the restrictions.

“If you have been abroad, against public health advice, you are not to be coming next, near or nigh a school for two weeks.

“If you want your schools to stay open ... the only way we can do that is with the cooperation of the general public.”

The first group of students will return to class next week.