INTO General Secretary John Boyle has called for issues around substitute teachers, sickness and class sizes to be examined further by the Department of Education so that when teachers and children go back to school, "they stay back".
Mr Boyle said the Irish National Teachers' Organisation did not say its teachers would not go back to school unless substitute teachers were hired, but it is seeking certainty around how to manage teacher absences.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, he said the INTO is trying to be creative and constructive so that "when we get back, we want to stay back".
Mr Boyle said he expects that "eight weeks from today every primary school will be open and the vast majority of children and teachers will be back as they were in March", but maybe not in super-sized classes.
He also said that some large classes may need to be split which will require an additional teacher.
Mr Boyle added that due to cuts introduced in 2013 a school principal must wait until a doctor decides if a teacher who is sick is fit to go back the following day before seeking a substitute teacher.
He said with teachers now mandated to stay at home if they are feeling sick, without more planning it will leave classes with no cover.
He said we "can't have this scenario where we have this great system that is designed to protect the children and parents of Ireland by keeping classes apart" and then when one teacher is absent the class is split between other classes, adding, "it won't work".
Mr Boyle said he favoured the extension of a pilot scheme that has been run in six schools where three teachers were appointed to provide cover for 15 schools in each local area.
The pilot scheme used an app to contact substitute teachers who turn up the next day and he said this allows "consistency and continuity" with no extra costs as there is a budget for substitute provision.
He acknowledged there are infection control risks in moving substitutes between schools - but suggested confining them to a certain number of schools would minimise this risk.
Mr Boyle said while the ideal would be that all of the 3,250 primary schools in Ireland should have a spare teacher on hand to cover for absences, that is not realistic.
He also said that teaching principals' workload in September is likely to be much greater as they seek to manage a safe school and teach classes.
He said those teaching principals need more release days early in the year to allow for planning and organising and he hopes all these issues will be worked on with the department this week.
He said his understanding is that final decisions will be made with the stakeholders views taken onboard.
This will ensure that public health advice will underline decisions, he said, and the INTO "will hold them to account in that regard".
