HSA claims schools are failing carry out accident risk assessments

SCHOOLS are not fully assessing risks of accidents for staff or students and fail to report all incidents, the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) believes.

In 2008, 97 work-related accidents or illnesses which caused teachers or other education staff to miss at least three days were reported, around a handful of them resulting in absences of six months or more.

But HSA assistant chief executive Mary Dorgan said this figure was hardly credible, given the fact that 150,000 people work in the education sector.