The National Alliance’s Saeima faction is concerned that by making Covid-19 vaccination compulsory, teachers may decide to leave their posts, which would negatively affect the quality of education, said NA board chairman and parliamentary deputy Raivis Dzintars.
On Monday, 26 July, members of the National Alliance’s Saeima faction met with Minister of Education and Science Anita Muižniece to discuss the issue of compulsory vaccination for teachers.
Dzintars revealed there were topics on which the two sides agreed on, such as the fact that students should return to normal school live on 1 September.
Nevertheless, the party did not hear any convincing arguments as to the goal being related to making vaccination compulsory, since teachers are people who frequently interact with children.
Children frequently interact with classmates, and not all parents are vaccinated, said Dzintars, adding that infection risks remain high for teachers. «This could have an impact, but the consequences of this decision and loss of a large number of teachers, and no one can tell how many teachers might leave, creates concerns about the possible impact on the quality of education. Especially in kindergartens, where we can see a shortage of teachers both in the capital city and other regions,» said the politician, adding that there may be problems on other education levels.
These are the issues to which NA has not received any convincing solutions. The party will continue discussions internally, said Dzintars.
He said that the 26 July meeting was one of the discussions NA politicians had previously planned for the upcoming plenary meeting, during which the Saeima will decide on the government’s prepared legislative draft on vaccination-related topics.
The parliamentarian said his party is concerned the most about making vaccination compulsory for teachers. This is why the education minister was one of the guests invited to the meeting. At the same time, he said on Wednesday, 28 July, politicians will meet with Minister of Health Daniels Pavļuts.
It is planned for the meeting with the minister to be more expansive and cover topics related to risk prevention and reduction of infection rates. NA will decide on future actions after this meeting, said Dzintars, adding that deputies may add corrections to the legislative draft.
When asked if NA would rather teachers are not added to the list of professions to undergo compulsory vaccination, Dzintars said his party has not yet formulated her position.
NA Saeima faction is worried about the risk of losing many teachers.
«It would be unfair and unjustified to say that all those who refuse to vaccinate, do their jobs poorly when working with students.»
«We have to think – is this really the most adequate method and are we prepared to pay this price and risk it?» said the deputy, adding that he has yet to hear any convincing counter-arguments.
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