‘You’re going into the class on a wing and a prayer’
TEACHERS FEEL BETRAYED AT GOVERNMENT’S ROLL-OUT U-TURN
‘YOU’RE going into the classroom on a wing and a prayer and hoping that today it’s not you,’ said Deirdre Fleming, INTO representative for County Wexford primary school teachers who are experiencing fear and anger following their removal from the Government’s vaccine priority list.
Taking a break from the union’s annual conference which was held via Zoom, Ms. Fleming spoke of teachers’ sense of betrayal by the Government which gave a promise in writing during negotiations last February on the reopening of schools, that teachers would be prioritised in the vaccine roll-out.
But the education sector was de-prioritsed in favour of an age-related vaccine schedule on the advice of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC).
The move led to a backlash from primary and second level teachers whose unions, the INTO, TUI and ASTI passed a joint emergency motion at their respective conferences last week, calling for the re-instatement of the education sector as a priority and early vaccination for those working in special schools and special classes along with pregnant teachers and home school liaison teachers.
If the Government doesn’t agree to restore the promised vaccination plan by the close of the secondary school year at the end of May, the unions will ballot members for action, up to and including strike action.
Ms. Fleming said approximately 93% of INTO members voted in favour of the motion.
‘ The overwhelming feeling of teachers is that we were let down. There was a broken promise by Government that we would be in the first 30% of people to be vaccinated. That was part of the agreement on the return to school.’
‘We are not looking to looking to displace any of the older or more vulnerable population. We just want to be vaccinated.
‘In the new age-related listing, there is a provision running parallel that people working in crowded situations would also be prioritised. We would feel that we should slot in there.
‘Primary school classrooms in Ireland are the most crowded in Europe. Children in primary school are not wearing masks. There is no social distancing in primary schools, particularly in the lower classes.
‘We are fighting a pandemic with open windows and hand sanitising gel. We are extremely worried. The cases have been rising in the education sector.
‘ Teachers are extremely worried. You are going into school on a wing and a prayer and you’re hoping that it’s not you today’.
‘Younger teachers are just as afraid of it. A colleague of mine who is 35 and had no underlying conditions got Covid last September and is suffering from Long Covid. She is a shadow of her former self.
The INTO representative said the issue is going to continue into next September as many primary school teachers are under 35 and won’t be vaccinated by then.
‘ They’re not going to be vaccinated by the start of the next school year and Covid is still going to be around.
‘ Teachers just want to do their job. Both teachers and parents found remote learning extremely difficult. Children need to be in school, we want to be in school but we want to do that as safely as possible and vaccination will help to ensure that.
‘We feel absolutely betrayed by the Government. We were given a written guarantee that we would be in the first 30% vaccinated. They’re saying the advice from the NIAC has now changed. They are deflecting the blame onto the NIAC.
‘If they want to keep the schools open, they have to vaccinate all education staff, not just teachers. ‘