Commenting on the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS)
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey release (1),
Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National
Education Union, said:
“The latest ONS figures show that in the last two weeks of
November education staff were 37% more likely than other workers
to have Covid. This is because children were so much more likely
to have Covid during that period. The ONS figure for educators is
yo-yoing up and down but remains consistently high. With the
Government’s predicted exponential rise in Omicron cases this
will only get worse.
“These figures explain why so many staff are having to miss
school due to a positive test and having to isolate. Some may
have to be off longer with more serious symptoms.
“Teachers, support staff and school leaders are working hard to
keep schools running - but the Government really needs to stand
behind and help them.
“These figures underlie the necessity of the calls we have been
making for mitigations - for ventilation and air filtration, for
mask wearing, for isolation of siblings of positive cases to
ensure Covid infection rates remain as low as possible in schools
and colleges.
“The worry is these figures could be worse in January - and that
as , Chair of the Education
Select Committee said in the House of Commons yesterday, this
could lead to serious consequences for schools and colleges
simply because there aren’t enough staff to maintain education.
This is something no one wants to see.
“The Government needs to commit to these mitigations, to
accelerate the vaccination of secondary children and to seek to
mobilise ex-teachers to supplement the pool of exhausted supply
staff - who should be paid properly without supply agencies
making a huge profit from this crisis. Governments should also
direct Ofsted to stop routine inspections and to direct its staff
to act as replacement teachers in schools that need them.”
Editor’s Note
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey, characteristics of
people testing positive for COVID-19, UK: 16 December 2021:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveycharacteristicsofpeopletestingpositiveforcovid19uk/16december2021
“People working in the education sector continued to be more
likely to test positive for COVID-19 in comparison with other
working adults in the fortnight ending 28 November 2021; the
higher risk is likely related to the recent high infection levels
among school-aged children.”
See Table 2a line 27 column C, in 16 December 2021 dataset
here.
