By James Simons-
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the school leaders’ union NAHT, has called on the government to take action to reduce transmission to ensure there is no “further widespread disruption to education”, PA Media reports.
The call comes after Public Health England (PHE) data showed there had been 97 confirmed Covid-19 outbreaks in schools that have had at least one variant case connected to them over the most recent four-week period. This is the equivalent of about one in 250 schools.
Outbreaks of Covid-19 in primary and secondary schools are relatively low, but reportedly at their highest levels in recent months. Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said:
The data shows that Covid cases in schools are at the highest level for six months.
Every case in a school results in further damaging disruption to children and young people’s education.
All decisions on essential control measures to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 in schools and colleges must continue to be led by the scientific data and advice to ensure that staff, pupils and the public are kept safe.
A government spokeswoman said:
”Attendance in schools remains high, and the data shows the steps we are taking to keep the Delta variant under control in schools are working.
On top of robust measures in place across the country, such as increased ventilation in classrooms and keeping to small group bubbles, we have increased the availability of testing for staff, pupils and families in areas of high prevalence.
We would encourage everyone to ensure they are continuing to test twice-weekly even if they don’t have symptoms. Testing regularly is even more important as pupils return to school after the May half-term to reduce transmission.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said:
”Any increase of Covid cases is obviously worrying, and there is particular concern about the infectivity of the Delta variant.
The situation clearly continues to be precarious, and will need to be monitored very carefully after the half-term holiday. It is essential that data is more readily available in the future.
The latest PHE data suggests there were 140 outbreaks of the Delta variant in schools and 62 in workplaces between January 4 and June 1.
Whiteman said:
”We have been hearing from our members that more and more schools are having to close multiple classes or ‘bubbles’, particularly in areas with higher case numbers. This latest official data release appears to support those concerns.
The government must be proactive and use all the provisions of the existing contingency framework to ensure that transmission in schools is not allowed to proceed unchecked. We must not sleepwalk into further widespread disruption to education”.