Scotland's largest teaching union has written to Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney, as well as the leaders of all the major political parties, calling for their support to vaccinate school staff against Covid-19.
The Educational Institute of Scotland is urging all those in power to reconsider the planned roll-out of the vaccine, claiming teachers and other school staff should be vaccinated as a matter of urgency.
Last week, the Scottish Government announced it would be adhering to guidelines published by the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI), which recommend vaccinating under 50s against Covid based on age, not occupation.
READ MORE: Vaccinating under 50s by age is 'hugely disappointing', say police federation
However, EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan said the government's plans were "short-sighted."
He said: “It seems short-sighted of the Scottish Government not to utilise the vaccination tool to ensure continuity of education – an action at odds with the political rhetoric about the importance of education to the lives of our young people.
"Given the caring role that teachers and other education staff undertake, particularly Early Years, Primary and ASN staff, and the difficulties that there are in maintaining physical distance between staff and pupils in these contexts, in omitting to vaccinate teachers, the Scottish Government will have failed to take appropriate mitigating action of the kind that it has undertaken for other frontline care workers.”
The letter also calls on the Scottish Government to consider the impact of teacher absence on the education of young people, claiming staff absence could "seriously impact" SQA qualifications.
The union reported an average of 1,500 staff absences in schools per week, at one stage last September peaking at over 2,500.
Calling for school staff to now be prioritised, the letter explains that the EIS had deliberately avoided calling for education staff to be made a priority within Phase 1 of the programme, but said that there is "scope to take a different approach" within Phase 2.
It read: "Within Phase 1 the Scottish Government chose to reorder the JCVI priorities to accommodate its own policy agenda with regard to care homes and we believe a similar approach should apply to schools.”
It comes after an online campaign calling for school staff to be vaccinated, launched on Friday by the EIS, attracted almost 5000 signatures over the weekend.
However, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman responded to criticism over the decision to continue based on age bracket saying it would not be "justifiable, proportionate, or wise to deviate" from the guidelines.
Ms Freeman said she understood the disappointment, but said the JCVI guidelines were based on a careful evaluation of the risks and benefits.
She said: "They are crystal clear where the greatest risk factor lies, and it lies with age.
READ MORE: Strong case for police being given vaccine priority, Chief Constable says
"It doesn't lie on the basis of where you work, but on how old you are as well as if you have underlying health conditions or are clinically extremely vulnerable."
She said the recommendations would make the rollout to all adults under 50 faster and simpler.
"Logistically, it also makes sense: it is straightforward for us to identify people on the basis of age through our NHS Scotland highly secure and protected records.
"It's much more difficult to go through those and work out who is a teacher, who works for the police force, who does something else - that takes longer."
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