The INTO says primary schools are going to have a difficult time between now and Christmas.
The teachers union is calling for clarity on the rollout of antigen testing for primary school children, and the 5-day restriction on movements for households.
"Torrid time we've had with subsitution - even though the Department did put in efforts to address that," said the Irish National Teachers Organisation John Boyle.
"I think we'll have a difficult time between now and Christmas. Hopefully the measures Government put in yesterday will begin to take effect in a few weeks.
"At the moment there are 8,000 children between 5 and 12 years old who have tested positive in the last two weeks to Sunday night."
While, the teachers union also wants to know what the change to contact tracing means for schools. Yesterday, the Government announced that if there's a positive case in a household, everyone in the home must restrict their movements for five days.
"We still don't know how they're going to identify close contacts," said John Boyle.
"Because, all of the close contact regime was taken out of schools, so does this mean our demands for the reinstatement of close contact testing is happening. We want clarity on that."
There was confusion yesterday in the run-up to the announcement on the change to contact tracing. There was a suggestion from the Labour Party that its leader Alan Kelly was told that teachers would be exempt from the rule by the Taoiseach.
However, speaking on the Last Word on Today FM last night, the Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath said, "If there is a case in their house, and they're a household contact of a confirmed case.
Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath says teachers WILL have to restrict their movements for five days if there's a positive case in their household.@lstwrd
— Ben Finnegan (@_BenFinnegan) November 16, 2021
"Then the general rule that applies to everyone else also applies to teachers. In that scenario, they do have to restrict their movements and that means not going to work"
