The Office for National Statistics' latest infection survey (1)
shows that secondary-age pupils now have the highest rate of
infection of any age group and, whilst it has fallen a little as
a result of the half-term holiday, it is likely to carry on
increasing.
The National Education Union has today received a letter from Sir
and
Professor Sir Ian Diamond (2) in response to a set of questions
posed on 20 October. (3) The letter confirms that ONS and SAGE
will be collecting data on school bubbles and ventilation, which
is particularly important given the emerging evidence on airborne
transmission of the virus.
The NEU is concerned that the continued trajectory of infection
rates in schools and colleges will make this lockdown much less
effective, and not make the sacrifice worthwhile. Initial
indications show that R has not come down far enough - ZOE
estimate it to be 0.9, whilst SAGE estimate it 1.0 – 1.2 (see
note 4). This indicates that while coronavirus might go into
retreat, it will not retreat very far.
This concern is heightened by the SAGE finding that children aged
12-16 played a "significantly higher role” in introducing
infection into households in the period after schools reopened
their doors to all students.
We are also troubled by new evidence from Public Health England
(5) showing that the positivity rate amongst school-age children
is extremely high. For secondary age children it is 18% and for
primary age children it is 12%. The level of testing amongst
school-age children has actually fallen in recent weeks. This
means that only a tiny proportion of pupils with coronavirus are
self-isolating. We call on the Government to take urgent steps to
massively increase the level of testing for school pupils.
Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National
Education Union, said:
"We are pleased that SAGE has recognised the important role that
schools and school-age children play in transmission of the virus
(6). We have been concerned for some time that an erroneous
belief that children do not play a significant role in the
transmission of coronavirus was badly distorting policy. This is
in spite of a clear and sharp trend in infection rates among
secondary school pupils in particular since the start of term.
"We call on the Government to play a much more active role to
suppress the transmission of COVID within schools. Schools have
gone to great lengths to make themselves as safe as possible but
there is only so much they can do on their own. We put forward a
ten-point plan in June with suggestions including hiring
additional space and teachers to reduce class sizes. (7) More
recently we have put forward ideas to enable social distancing in
schools through the use of rotas for older secondary school
pupils. (8) All these suggestions were ignored. Schools have been
given inadequate advice - more often than not delivered at the
last minute - and with no additional funding.
"The situation is untenable and widespread disruption will
continue unless the Government takes steps to get coronavirus
under control in schools."
ENDS
Editor’s Note
- Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey, UK: 13 November
2020, https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/13november2020
- Sent 13 November 2020. Attached.
- Sent 20 October 2020. Attached.
- “COVID declining across the UK”, press release from ZOE.
https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/covid-declining-across-the-uk
; SAGE estimate of R, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-r-number-in-the-uk
- “Weekly Influenza and COVID-19 Surveillance graphs” published
by Public Health England, charts on pages 33 and 34 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/934812/Weekly_COVID-19_and_Influenza_Surveillance_Graphs_W46.pdf
- Minutes of Sixty-fifth SAGE meeting, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sage-65-minutes-coronavirus-covid-19-response-4-november-2020
- Coronavirus: National Education Recovery Plan, 11 June 2020:
https://neu.org.uk/press-releases/coronavirus-national-education-recovery-plan
- Secondary Schools Moving to a Rota System, 23 October 2020:
https://neu.org.uk/press-releases/secondary-schools-moving-rota-system
