Most teachers worried about coronavirus spreading at school

A massive 89 percent of teachers are worried of getting the coronavirus themselves or infecting someone else at school, according to a survey by teachers' union AOb among 3 thousand of its members. Almost 40 percent are very worried about this. 87 percent of teachers who belong to a risk group went to teach every day as usual, Trouw reports.

Coronavirus concerns among teachers increased significantly since June, when a similar survey showed that around 13 percent of teachers were very worried about the virus. According to Henri de Moel of the AOb, this is because the number of Covid-19 infections increased again over the summer. "Moreover, all pupils are now actually going to school, which was not yet the case in June. It is also not entirely clear how contagious young people are, and of course the teachers in education read that too. So concerns are rising," he said to the newspaper.

Three quarters of teachers said that staying 1.5 meters away from pupils proved difficult to impossible at school. Maintaining social distancing from colleagues is somewhat easier, but still not perfect - 29 percent of teachers in regular education called it impossible, and 41 percent in special education.

De Moel called for the ventilation in schools to be checked by experts, and for teachers to be given priority in Covid-19 testing - both for their peace of mind, and for them to get back to teaching as soon as possible given the teacher shortage. Finally, schools should also register which classes couldn't go through, so it is clear where backlogs need to be dealt with.