Unions comment on rising COVID rates and school attendance

The National Education Union (NEU) and Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) have commented on the latest school attendance statistics from the Department for Education

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, said the following:

“The rise in pupil absence is a reminder that COVID is still with us, still disrupting education and still affecting the health of education staff. Pupil absences have risen by over 50% in the past four weeks: more than one in eight pupils are now off school, while staff absences have also risen significantly.

“The current high absence figures are causing further disruption to pupils’ education as they try to catch up on missed learning before the end of the academic year. Catchup funding has never come close to reaching the levels recommended by the government’s own COVID recovery tsar Sir Kevan Collins, and the current wave of infection and absence risks some pupils being left further behind as they head towards the summer break.

“Government efforts to improve ventilation in classrooms remain woefully inadequate. The current COVID wave is occurring during mid-summer, when classroom windows are open and still the absence rate is high. This is a wake-up call: if the next COVID wave arrives in winter, transmission and sickness levels are likely to be much worse unless the DfE gets its act together and properly funds adequate ventilation in all classrooms.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the ASCL, said the following:

“It’s extremely concerning to see attendance rates for pupils falling rapidly again in today’s figures, and absence rates for teachers, leaders and support staff continuing to rise. It is impossible to know how many of these absences are directly due to COVID, as the government has made the decision to no longer collect this information. However, given the rising rates of infection across society, it is highly likely that COVID is playing a significant role in these worrying figures.

“A government which already appeared to have washed its hands of responsibility for these rising rates is now even more distracted by its own internal politics. In the meantime, education continues to be disrupted, and children and staff continue to fall ill, often multiple times.

“We simply cannot have this pattern continue to repeat, particularly as we head into the colder months again in the autumn term. The government must refocus on the ongoing challenges of the pandemic and come up with a strategy to minimise this ongoing disruption.”