Commenting on the Week 25 school attendance statistics, Geoff
Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and
College Leaders, said:
“These statistics show a large and extremely worrying increase in
the number of children absent from school for Covid-related
reasons. It clearly reflects the climbing rate of coronavirus
cases in society in general and the prevalence of the Delta
variant.
“It means that many pupils and schools are experiencing yet more
disruption after more than a year of turbulence and it is a grim
way to reach the closing stages of the school year.
“Schools have no choice other than to hang on until the end of
term endeavouring to manage this situation, and we can only pay
tribute to them for everything they are doing in these
extraordinarily difficult circumstances.
“However, the government must think urgently about how to reduce
educational disruption in the next academic year after the summer
holidays.
“We simply cannot have another term of large numbers of children
spending time out of school because of coronavirus. Schools are
doing their very best to provide high-quality remote education to
pupils who are absent but this can never be a complete substitute
for the interaction of in-class teaching.
“This is a crucial and pressing matter because it also has
implications for the shape of next year’s public exams in GCSEs,
A-levels and other qualifications.”
