Covid in Scotland: 'Clear support' for industrial action in schools
- Published
Pupils in secondary schools have to cover their faces in corridors
Scotland's largest teaching union has said there is "clear support" among its members for industrial action over Covid safety concerns in some schools.
The EIS has been calling for schools in level four areas to either close or move to a blended learning model.
But the Scottish government insists that the evidence clearly supports schools remaining open.
The union has been asking members whether they would potentially take industrial action over the issues.
It has now published the results of the online survey, external, with half of the 18,733 respondents backing schools in level four areas closing to pupils, while about a third supported a move to a part-time blended model.
About two thirds (65.7%) of the respondents said they would be willing to take industrial action, including potentially strike action, if those options were rejected by councils or Public Health Scotland.
The EIS said many teachers who responded to the survey had indicated they do not currently feel safe at work despite the social distancing and additional hygiene measures that have been put in place.
And it argued that keeping schools fully open "cannot come at the expense of teacher and pupil wellbeing".
The union's general secretary, Larry Flanagan, said the survey showed that teachers held a range of opinions on the best means of keeping people safe in schools.
But he said there was "clear support for moving to industrial action in higher risk areas to protest where teachers feel that the measures required to keep schools safe have not been delivered."
Mr Flanagan added: "For level four restrictions to be as effective as we would wish them to be, short term closure or part closure of schools need to be considered."
The Scottish government's education secretary, John Swinney, has said the priority was keeping children in school
The survey results showed that only 4.6% of respondents felt very safe in schools, while 25.9% felt safe.
A further 26.3% said they felt neither safe or unsafe, with 32.5% saying they felt unsafe and 9.5% very unsafe.
Mr Flanagan said the feeling of being at risk was heightened for teachers in secondary schools, for teachers in higher risk areas under level three or level four restrictions, and for teachers in vulnerable groups or who live with or provide care for vulnerable family members.
The Scottish government says the evidence shows that schools are "not a significant area of transmission".
But Education Secretary John Swinney said he was "concerned" that some teachers who responded to the survey had said they do not feel safe.
He added that extensive guidance was in place to reduce the risk of Covid transmission in schools, and that enhanced risk mitigations were in place in level three and level four areas to protect clinically vulnerable staff and pupils.
Rapid testing
Mr Swinney said school staff could already to get a coronavirus test even if they do not have symptoms, with plans being made to potentially pilot and roll out rapid testing in schools.
But Mr Swinney acknowledged: "We need to do more to ensure everybody feels safe".
The education secretary told BBC Scotland last week that the number of positive cases among pupils represented only 0.1% of all pupils.
He said the level for teachers varied between about 4% and 7%, which he said was "no different to any other workforce in that category".
Parents group Us For Them Scotland has called for the government to keep schools open - even in level four areas.
"We know there are influential groups who've wanted schools shut right from the start, and now strike action is being used as another tactic to force this through," organiser Jo Bisset said last week.
"All of this serves to damage the wellbeing and prospects of children."
'Do you think it's safe to be here?' - One teacher's worries
"I really don't know many teachers who want to close schools, but increasingly we're asking each other: 'Do you think it's safe to be here?'," one teacher - who asked to remain anonymous - told BBC Scotland.
He said there had been "a lot of tears" from colleagues who were anxious to be at work.
In his school, which is in a level four area, several teachers have lost loved ones to Covid.
The teacher said now was the time to move to blended learning - "we worked so hard planning for it, now is the opportunity. Teachers are still in every day, it's not that we want to close the schools. We just want to be safe," he said.
He added that some children were now into their third period of isolating since the summer, yet teachers were hardly being told to isolate at all.
He said teachers were angered by claims that transmission rates were not increased in schools.
These claims were "patronising" given how "blatant" it was that transmission was occurring, he added.
