Coronavirus: Number of schools sending home pupils due to COVID quadruples in a week
The National Education Union urges ministers to take emergency measures to ensure schools and colleges stay safe.
Tuesday 22 September 2020 16:12, UK
The number of schools in England that are not fully open to students due to cases of COVID-19 has quadrupled in just a week, according to figures.
The number of state schools with partial closures in place due to coronavirus cases was 4% on 17 September, an increase from the 1% on September 10.
More students, around one in eight, were also absent from school on Thursday, with 87% present on 17 September compared to the 88% present a week before, according to data from the Department of Education.
During the 2018-19 academic year, an average of about 95% of pupils attended state schools in England.
Schools are not considered to be fully open if they cannot provide face-to-face teaching to all students for the whole school day and if they have asked groups of students to self-isolate.
This comes after education leaders warned a lack of access to COVID-19 tests for teachers and students is responsible for disruptions to children's learning.
Children's Commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, has called on the government to improve testing capabilities to avoid "throwing away" progress that has been made since reopening schools.
Schools in England have been affected by coronavirus cases since they reopened for the new academic year this month.
Some have had to temporarily close days after reopening, while others have been asking year groups to self-isolate due to confirmed cases.
The National Education Union (NEU) wrote to Boris Johnson on Sunday, asking ministers to take emergency measures to ensure schools and colleges stay safe.
It warned the testing regime needed to be both increased and improved.
The letter said the government failed to ensure that testing is sufficiently available to meet "the predictable need when 12 million children and their staff returned to school in England".
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On Monday, a government spokesperson said: "Schools and teachers have gone to extraordinary lengths to get children back into school, with over 99.9% of schools open with the vast majority of pupils attending.
"Where staff or children have symptoms, testing capacity is the highest it has ever been, and we are working to provide further priority access for teachers.
"Schools only need to identify close contacts and ask them to self-isolate if and when a case is confirmed from a positive test result.
"Close contacts of confirmed cases must follow the full 14-day self-isolation period and should only seek a test if they have symptoms."