By Gavin Mckintosh-
There has been a sharp rise in pupils sent home from school in England because of Covid, according to the latest official figures.
Official figures reveal that that more than 375,000 pupils – about one in 20 – were out of school for Covid-related reasons, up by more than 130,000 in a week.
The government has signaled a shift to more Covid testing for schools in September – rather than having to send home whole “bubbles” of pupils.
The Department for Education figures show a high number of Covid-related absences since schools went back in March , with 5% of pupils sent home, up from 3.3% the previous week”The government simply does not appear to have a grip on this situation,” said Paul Whiteman of the National Association of Head Teachers, warning of rising disruption.
There were higher levels of absence in secondary school, adjusted for those in exam years, with 6.2% out of school – up from 1.4% earlier this month.
“It is clear that a different approach is needed in the autumn term,” said Geoff Barton of the ASCL head teachers’ union. But he complained that so far the government’s proposals are only “vague aspirations”, Mr.Whitman continued.
The government’s former catch-up tsar, Sir Kevan Collins, said the “key thing” was to follow the evidence and take advice from experts and scientists on how testing could be used to reduce self-isolation for pupils.
“Ideally, of course, what we all want to do is get every child back in school every day, because that’s the very best way we’ll recover from the pandemic,” Sir Kevan said.
The former education recovery commissioner, who appeared before the Commons Education Select Committee on Tuesday, warned that education inequality could be the “legacy of Covid” and said longer school days could be one way of tackling this.
“I’m personally very, very clear that the biggest impact of Covid will definitely be on our most disadvantaged children.”
He confirmed to MPs that he quit his role earlier this month because a £1.4bn catch-up fund, “just wasn’t enough to deliver the kind of recovery we need”.
“Our country has responded in a way which compared to some others is frankly a bit feeble. This scale of shock requires a massive national effort to recover.”