European Trade Union Committee for Education

The COVID 19 outbreak is a public health crisis quite different than anything Europe has faced for many years. As education personnel and their trade unions grapple with the outbreak, we are supporting and informing member organisations in any way we can.

• Latest Updates

• ZNP successfully pushes for including teachers in the priority group for vaccination in Poland
• ETUCE participates in Finnish Educa online event on education and COVID-19
• Montenegro: news of the impact of the pandemic on education
• Kosovo: SBASHK demands signing of Collective Agreement and recognition of teachers’ daily work
• France: education trade unions prepared to strike for decent salaries and quality learning environments
• COVID-19: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control publishes a new study on COVID transmission in schools
• Malta: MUT orders a strike after the government denies their request for online teaching
• Hungary: ETUCE Member organisation calls for teachers to be among priority groups for COVID-19 vaccination
• UK: Education trade unions mobilised to denounce ‘chaotic’ reopening of schools, advising members not to return, prompting government’s U-turn
• Basque Country: thousands of education workers strike for a safe return to school and quality education for all students
• Reopening of schools in the Netherlands: ETUCE Member organisation AOb demands quicker testing and better health and safety measures to protect staff and students and keep schools open
• Education social partners discuss the aftermath of COVID-19 in Europe
• Germany: Ensuring health and safety of teachers requires more efforts for the reopening of schools
• COVID-19: In Italy, 400 000 education workers gather for online rallies to protest for better employment and working conditions during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond
• German-speaking education trade unions LCH, GÖD and VBE unite for a joint statement on COVID-19 and call for better digital training of teachers
• COVID-19 : NEU report highlights weeks of unanswered questions to the government on the reopening of schools
• In Serbia, education trade unions mobilise to advocate for safe return to school for education personnel and students alike at the end of the school year
• Higher education admission procedures risk being disrupted by COVID-19 crisis
• Eurydice reports on closure and reopening of schools and education institutions across Europe
• Remote but not far away: Italy’s FLC-CGIL takes trade union organising online
• In Denmark DLF works hard so that the health and safety of education personnel is protected in back-to-school policies
• Unions in Belgium and Germany join school community voices to demand careful reopening
• In Malta MUT works with government and social partners to guide education system through crisis
• Hungarian trade unions protest plans to force education personnel off public sector contracts
• As France cancels exams, SNES-FSU demands a solution fair to students and teachers
• In Germany VBE insists that lawmakers must consult teachers on COVID-19 legislation
• Spain's FECCOO calls for government action on teacher recruitment
• NEU helps staff in England and Wales stay safe and negotiate with leadership
• Nordic education unions join forces with public authorities to fight pandemic
• Teachers in Serbia make education work despite the crisis
• SBASHK supports education staff in Kosovo with the challenges of digital teaching
• Russia’s ESEUR holds online Congress in shadow of COVID-19 outbreak
• Romania’s FSLI offers psychological support to teachers
• Albanian education union uses technology to reduce impact of COVID-19
• Estonia shares digital education tools for distance teaching and learning
• Latest information on the closure of schools and other education institutions
• ETUCE calls for coordinated and rational measures

The study found that children were under-represented among severe cases, though the proportion of children aged 12-18 among the infected, matched their proportion in the population. The ECDC also found, through household and contact tracing studies, that younger children are less susceptible to SARSCoV-2 infection than adults and did not consider schools to have been a driving force for increased infections in autumn 2020.

Though the ECDC noted that school closures are likely to reduce social mixing and thus COVID-19 infections, the relative effectiveness of closing primary or secondary schools could not be determined. Moreover, evaluating the relative effectiveness of school closures compared to other non-pharmaceutical interventions is highly challenging. The report thus reminds of the negative health, social and economic consequences of closing schools, supporting its use as a last resort measure.

It must be noted that the results presented in the study do not account for the new variant of the COVID-19 virus, which appears to be more transmissible. The study does not account for adult education nor VET education and does not include data from boarding schools.

While education is a fundamental right and a public good, and social interaction is important for young people’s development and well-being, online and remote teaching is only an emergency solution, because it does not allow for the quality, motivation and support of the physical school environment with the personal contact with teachers and classmates. Nevertheless, the opening of education institutions to on-site teaching can only take place if it is not to the detriment of the health and safety of teachers which have to be, at all times, the highest priority.

ETUCE calls on governments to put all measures in place to ensure that education institutions be safe and healthy teaching and learning places, based on thorough analysis of the current situation with a view to develop better concepts and to provide adequate protection to teachers, students and the society as a whole from the further dissemination of the COVID-19 virus.

Find here the full report