The Department of Education is due to meet with teachers' unions today to discuss students serving as substitute teachers.
Around 4-thousand teaching students will serve as subs in primary schools up until the February mid-term break.
The initiative applies to those in third or fourth year, as well as those in postgraduate teaching courses.
The Irish National Teachers' Organisation estimates up to 15-hundred primary teachers are currently unavailable to work due to Covid-19.
General Secretary, John Boyle, says contact tracing needs to resume in classrooms to deal with high levels of infection.
"We actually heard yesterday morning that 10,503 primary school children have Covid-19 confirmed, and we figure from our server that we have up to 1,500 primary school teachers testing positive.
"We need the two departments to step in urgently - Education have certainly done their part up to now, we urgently need Public Health to play their part in making schools safer by reinstating risk assessments and contact tracing."
