School staff absence in Scotland has dropped for the second week in a row, updated official figures show.
Earlier this month, on 15 March, school staff absence peaked at 6,058 - but by the following week it had dropped to 5,815 and now the latest figures show that on Tuesday (29 March) it hit 5,081.
The figures still represent some of the highest rates of teacher and support staff absence Scotland has had to contend with during the Covid pandemic. However, they do appear to support first minister Nicola Sturgeon’s assertion yesterday that “this latest wave of infection may now have peaked”.
This week’s figure of 5,081 school staff absent is broken down as follows:
- 702 teachers and 492 support staff were absent because they were isolating, shielding or looking after someone.
- 2,313 teachers and 1,574 support staff had confirmed or suspected Covid.
Pupil absence, meanwhile, is also down on last week. On Tuesday 29 March, 19,387 pupils were off because of the pandemic, down from 28,428 the week before.
The latest figures show that 10,050 were off because they had the virus and 8,392 because they were isolating. The remainder were absent because their parents had chosen to keep them away from school (735) or because their school was closed (210).
The attendance rate on Tuesday was 87.8 per cent, the same as the previous week.
Speaking in the Scottish Parliament yesterday, Ms Sturgeon said: “We are hopeful that this wave has peaked or is now peaking. Indeed, this is being observed already in Northern Ireland which, unlike England and Wales, appears to have been ahead of Scotland in the transmission of BA.2.”
Nevertheless, Ms Sturgeon also revealed that the most recent Office for National Statistics Covid infection survey, for the week ending 20 March, indicated that one in 11 people in Scotland had Covid, the highest level of infection recorded so far.
And in schools, teaching unions report that there are still high rates of Covid-related absence.
The EIS teaching union is urging the Scottish government to retain free lateral flow testing for schools beyond the Easter holidays.
The government has said routine testing will end from 18 April but, in a statement issued yesterday, EIS general secretary Larry Flanagan said ending LFT availability as exam season approaches was “nonsensical” and could be “devastating for our young people”.
The EIS also says if mask-wearing in corridors and communal areas is no longer required by regulation after Easter, “it should still be encouraged as good practice”. Ms Sturgeon had said yesterday that the requirement would end for pupils, as it will for the general public, from 18 April, but that “it should still be encouraged as good practice”.
