Commenting on the latest Department
for Education statistical release on attendance in educational
settings to 17 March, Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National
Education Union,
said:
"We did not need to wait for official
statistics to know there is a clear jump in Covid cases in
schools. With pupil absence for Covid-related reasons trebling in
the space of just a fortnight, and almost one in ten teachers and
school leaders absent on 17 March, this is a worrying time.
Almost a quarter of schools have more than 15% of their teachers
and school leaders absent, a figure that has more than doubled in
a fortnight.
"The Government's plan to end regular
testing in schools and free testing in the community after this
month is clearly a bad call. It will make Covid outbreaks and
future waves hard to track and render impossible the efforts to
anticipate trends. Without cases being picked up and isolated,
widespread disruption in schools due to the virus will become an
ever-increasing threat as we approach exam
season.
"We have got to see a change of course
on Covid policy from the top, with testing remaining free and at
school level a renewed and much more far-reaching commitment to
monitoring, air filtration, and other building requirements. It
is only though such preventative measures that we can reliably
keep education disruption under control, at a time when cases are
rising. Living with Covid must not mean ignoring
it."
Editor’s
Note
Pupils absent for Covid-related
reasons more than trebled in a
fortnight:
-
An
estimated 2.5% (202,000) of all pupils on roll in
state-funded schools did not attend school for COVID-19
related reasons on 17 Mar, up
from 0.7% (58,000) on 3 Mar.
Almost a quarter of schools have more
than 15% of teachers and school leaders absent, a figure that has
more than doubled in a fortnight
-
23% of
all state-funded schools had more than 15% of
their teachers and school leaders absent for any reason on
17 Mar, up from 11% on 3
Mar.
Almost one in ten teachers and school
leaders are now absent from school (for any reason, not just
Covid - DfE has stopped collecting reasons for staff
absence).
-
An
estimated 9.1% of teachers and school leaders were absent for any
reason from open schools on 17 Mar, up
from 5.8% on
3 Mar.
-
An
estimated 8.5% of teaching assistants and other staff were absent
for any reason from open schools on 17 Mar, up
from 5.4% on
3 Mar.
