Headteachers have called on the government to ensure that the remaining CO2 monitors are delivered to schools quickly after it was revealed that less than half of those promised had arrived by the end of last month.
The Department for Education announced in August that 300,000 monitors would be sent out to schools to help them measure ventilation in an attempt to curb the spread of Covid-19.
New figures published today show that by 29 October 144,723 had been delivered to state-funded education settings.
The department has said that deliveries to all alternative and special schools had been completed and that the programme was “on track”.
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But it is not known how many mainstream schools have received monitors to date.
James Bowen, director of policy for the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “These latest figures show that less than half the CO2 monitors the government has said it will send to schools have been delivered to date.
“We still have no data on how many individual schools have actually received the monitors and how many are still waiting.”
Mr Bowen added: “We are certainly hearing from schools that have not received any yet, despite the policy being announced back in August.
“Given how important good ventilation is, it’s vitally important that these devices get out to all schools as quickly as possible.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “Our rollout of at least 300,000 carbon dioxide monitors to schools, backed by £25 million in government funding, is on track with almost half already delivered and the remainder to be delivered this term.
“Schools are generally finding the monitors to be a helpful tool to manage ventilation, sitting alongside the other protective measures in place to manage transmission, such as regular testing, vaccinations and increased hygiene.”
However, the department did not provide a breakdown of how many schools have received monitors to date or a schedule for when all mainstream schools would receive them.
The data, released today by the DfE, details CO2 monitor delivery to state-funded education settings, including early years, schools and further education providers in England up to 29 October 2021.
The department has said that carbon dioxide monitors help schools understand how well air is circulating in and out of the room, and decide whether they need to take any additional steps to improve air circulation and ventilation.
It said that in the majority of cases this is about finding the right balance between taking steps to improve ventilation where areas of poor ventilation are identified, such as opening doors and windows or fixing mechanical ventilation systems, “while also managing thermal comfort”.
But it said that there were rare cases where the DfE was looking at options to help schools with ventilation challenges - in particularly SEND and AP settings where children are most vulnerable.
It said in these cases it was looking at schools being to be able to access air-cleaning devices.
When asked by Tes the DfE did not provide figures for how many schools were in this position.
One union leader has expressed concerns that while the delivery of CO2 monitors is positive, it “does not fully address the issue of ventilation in schools as a control measure against coronavirus.”
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, previously said: “The purpose of CO2 monitors is to assess how well-ventilated spaces are and help balance good ventilation with thermal comfort. In other words, they alert you to when a window needs to be opened.
“This still seems to us to be an inadequate solution in a country where it is cold for much of the year and we have repeatedly called on the government to make funding available for air ventilation systems.”
The DfE will be publishing new statistics every fortnight for the rest of the autumn term showing how many devices have been delivered.
