The President of the ASTI has said the union would be "cautious" about any changes to the current mask mandate in schools.
Eamon Dennehy said it would be much easier for schools if the masks remained in place because covid-19 still poses a significant threat in schools.
Mr Dennehy said an average of 2,300 secondary students are contracting the disease every week.
He urged caution, saying that oral exams are coming up and every effort must be made to ensure these exams can go ahead fully and students can attend.
"It is a very short time ago we were looking at schools almost not opening after Christmas. I think, make haste slowly here would be my advice."
Mr Dennehy said that staff would follow public health advice and the majority would prefer if the measures remained in place and a wind down of covid restrictions would happen slowly and carefully.
He said that school communities and students have played a huge part in keeping schools safe.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, he said that it has always been the case that restrictions in schools have been stronger than in other areas (such as pubs and restaurants) but the key difference is that attendance at school is mandatory and teachers and students can chose whether they want to go to a social venue, but they cannot decide not to attend class or work.
He agreed that the restrictions make the school a less enjoyable place to work and study in, but that they are necessary.
'Serious consideration' needed to maintaining measures - TUI
With the daily number of positive Covid-19 cases in the community still high and outbreaks still occurring in many schools, the Teachers' Union of Ireland has said that serious consideration should be given to maintaining key mitigation measures currently in place in schools, including the wearing of face masks, for the foreseeable future.
The union said that for those students in Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate classes this year, it is very important that they experience as little disruption to their studies as possible in the coming weeks and months.
In a statement the TUI said that many students are already undertaking second components of assessment such as project and portfolio work and the Orals will follow at Easter before the written examinations in June.
It added that maintenance of the measures currently in place would be of clear value in helping to ensure that disruption is kept to a minimum level.
Meanwhile, a professor of immunology at Dublin City University said she would have a degree of concern about removing masks in schools right now.
Professor Christine Loscher said the country is only just starting to see a real decrease in cases (in the last week) but that the highly transmissible variant, Omicron, is still circulating.
There is a degree of seasonality associated with coronavirus, she said, and as we move to mid to late March there will be a natural fall off in cases and this would be a better time to remove the mask mandate.
Professor Loscher pointed out that the uptake of vaccination in the primary school cohort has been very disappointing.
This, she said, means there is a difference between the potential transmission in enclosed places between unvaccinated and vaccinated groups of individuals.
"I don't think we're quite out of the woods yet in terms of really getting on top of our case numbers and pushing those virus numbers down.
"And while we know that they're not translating in the same way to hospitalisations and ICU's we are every day seeing more information about the other impacts of Covid-19 virus on other parts of physiology, so the neurological effects, long Covid, all of these other considerations."
Meanwhile, senior civil servants will meet later today ahead of a review tomorrow by the National Public Health Emergency Team on mask wearing requirements in schools and other settings.
Masks are currently still mandatory in schools, retail and health settings, and on public transport until the end of this month.
There are indications politically that NPHET could recommend ending the need to wear masks in schools, while a recommendation on the scaling back of Covid-19 testing is also possible.
However, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has already said that he would like to see people wearing masks in shops and on public transport for some time yet, whether they are mandated or not.
In Northern Ireland, the requirement for people to wear face coverings in settings such as shops and on public transport ended at 5pm yesterday, while Covid certificates will no longer be needed to gain entry to nightclubs and large indoor unseated events.
