School COVID absence up 60% in England in two weeks

As reported by BBC News, the number of pupils absent from school in England because of COVID rose by about 60% in the two weeks to Thursday last week, official figure show

Some 208,000 state-school pupils (2.6%) were absent with confirmed or suspected cases, on Thursday, 25 November. The sharp increase has drawn an angry response from teaching unions, who want more support in fighting infections. There is concern about the new Omicron variant, first identified in South Africa, making its way into schools.

It was better to act cautiously early on than come anywhere close to a position where schools had to close again, National Association of Head Teachers general secretary Paul Whiteman said.

“We cannot rely on the Christmas holidays acting as another natural firebreak – the travel and family-mixing done over Christmas means infection is more likely to spread into the wider population,” he added.

The rise follows a dip many associated with the half-term holidays at the end of October. But it was now clear this reduction in COVID-related pupil and staff absence had been short-lived and disruption had risen “very sharply again”, Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Geoff Barton said.

“In the space of just two weeks, the number of pupils out of school because of the impact of the virus has increased by nearly 80,000 to a total of 208,000 absences,” he said.

High rates of staff absence were also making delivering simultaneous in-class and remote education even more challenging, Barton said.

“The emergence of the Omicron variant seems likely to make this situation worse,” he said. And he had repeatedly called for more government support.

National Education Union joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said: “The new variant threatens to undo the hard work that teachers, support staff and their leaders have done to keep education going.

“Today’s attendance figures show that the half-term fall in case rates was only temporary.”

In secondary schools, 12.5% of pupils were out of school last Thursday, up from 10.5% two weeks earlier. In primaries, the absence rate was 8.9%, up from 6.4%. Before the pandemic, average rate of absence from schools was four to five per cent.

The fortnightly figures’ release follows education secretary Nadhim Zahawi advising schools to reintroduce face masks in crowded places, such as corridors. Government guidelines had removed the requirement to wear them or use social-distancing measures, although many schools had continued.