Pupil absences as a result of coronavirus have tripled in English secondary schools indicating the worst disruption to education since March, as the Delta variant first identified in India continued to spread across the county, new data showed.
About 4.2 per cent of older students from state schools were absent on June 17 because of the virus, up from 1.4 per cent the previous week, according to figures from the Department for Education published on Tuesday.
Teacher unions have called on government for improved safety measures and more freedom to respond to outbreaks, warning that the interruption to learning could deteriorate further to levels of last winter, when up to 9-11 per cent of pupils were off for Covid-related reasons as the second wave peaked.
“We are now seeing the effect of the spreading Delta variant on national figures, and absences from school are only likely to continue rising in the coming weeks, along with obvious disruption to pupils’ education,” Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said.