Teaching has one of the highest proportions of staff isolating because of Covid-19 and the figures are rising, new data reveals.
Around one in 25 people in the UK working in teaching and education were self-isolating because of Covid at the end of last month, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Some 3.9 per cent of teaching and education staff were self-isolating on 29 January - up from 2 per cent two weeks earlier.
The ONS figures are the first of their kind to estimate self-isolation levels for different types of employment.
The retail sector had the lowest estimated percentage of the workforce in self-isolation, at 2.2 per cent - up from 1.5 per cent in the middle of January.
Among healthcare staff, the figure stood at 3.6 per cent - up from 2.1 per cent.
Covid self-isolation still high in schools
An estimated 2.7 per cent - around one in 37 - of the working-age population of England were self-isolating on 29 January, the ONS said.
This was up from 2.2 per cent, or one in 45, on 15 January.
At the peak of the Omicron wave early last month, nearly one in 20 (4.7 per cent) of the working-age population in England were likely to be in self-isolation.
Tes reported last week that the NAHT school leaders’ union said it was “naïve” of the government to think that ending Covid self-isolation requirements would stop disruption to education in schools during the pandemic.
The union spoke out after prime minister Boris Johnson signalled in the Commons that laws requiring people in England with the coronavirus to self-isolate could be lifted after half-term.
Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said ending isolation rules for people with Covid could happen after February half-term if the data continues to go in the right direction.
But Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, said the rule change “won’t stop” absences, adding: “The current reality is that we’re seeing very high numbers of pupils and staff, particularly at primary, catching and becoming ill with Covid.”
The Department for Education attendance data published last week showed that 9.1 per cent of teachers and school leaders were absent from open schools on 3 February (with 4.4 per cent absent for Covid-related reasons) - up slightly from 9 per cent on 20 January.
