Last week, Tes Scotland revealed school staff absence had hit its highest level this school year, with over 6,000 teachers and support staff off work because of coronavirus.
Pupil absence, meanwhile, is also showing an upward trend because of the virus. Nevertheless, the Scottish government plans to end the routine testing of teachers and secondary students after the Easter holidays.
Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, says the end of the advice to test twice weekly, whether you have symptoms or not, will have “a detrimental impact on teacher confidence and absence rates, as schools are a high-risk environment for Covid transmission”.
It wants asymptomatic lateral flow testing to be maintained but says its request has been rejected by the education secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville.
The EIS is now urging its members to write to Ms Somerville “to urge her to change the Scottish government decision” and maintain the current testing regime.
The text the EIS suggests that teachers send to Ms Somerville reads: “Schools have significant footfalls in concentrated periods of time, a large number of households mixing and prolonged close contact within teaching areas making them a high-risk environment for Covid transmission - as can be seen by the current record levels of Covid related absence.
“For pupils to prosper, teacher absences need to be as low as possible.”
The suggested message from the EIS adds: “Teachers need to have the confidence of knowing whether they have Covid or another illness; this is best done by keeping an effective testing regime with LFTs.”
Meanwhile, Jim Thewliss, general secretary of School Leaders Scotland, told Tes Scotland secondary headteachers would like to see regular testing of staff and pupils continue until after the current spike in cases passes, and probably until the summer.
Mr Thewliss said: “We are apprehensive about this [the removal of routine testing]. We would have preferred to have kept this going and available, certainly until we see ourselves well clear of this peak, given we are going to be moving into exams when we come back and young people will be gathering in assembly halls.
“If I was asked to put a time scale on it, I would say we would probably like it to stay in place until the summer.”
The Scottish government set out its plans to stop routine testing among the general public in its updated test and protect guidance published last week.
It shows how the government plans to manage the transition from the current testing regime to a more targeted approach to testing.
From mid-April, it says that if people are well and have no symptoms, they will no longer be advised to test twice weekly - and that includes “routine asymptomatic testing in education settings”, which it says “will cease at the end of the current term”.
At this point in mid-April, the guidance says positive cases will continue to be told to self-isolate, but as of the end of April “the general public will no longer be advised to seek a test if symptomatic” and will only be told, “to stay at home if unwell”.
The guidance adds: “Some regular asymptomatic testing - for example in health and social care workforces - will continue to be in place, alongside a range of other infection prevention and control measures such as personal protective equipment, in order to reduce the risk of the spread of infection in settings where the clinical risks of transmission are high.”
Last month, the UK government removed the advice that staff and students in secondary schools in England should test twice a week but free tests are still available until the end of this month.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, has called for free tests to remain available “beyond the end of March and for the foreseeable future” to avoid further disruption to this summer’s exams.
