Spreading best practices, or viruses? | The lack of urgency from the Department of Education

The UK government has reported that since the beginning of the pandemic, school absence rates have continued to rise. Before the pandemic, the overall absence rate was 4.7%. This has now jumped to 7.6% in 2021/22 before falling to 7.1% in 2023/24. Indicative figures from the daily data shows a further decrease to 6.9% in 24/25. They mention there is also a rise in persistent absence – this means missing more than 10% of school days. The number of children who are persistently absent has nearly doubled since the pandemic. Severe absence – meaning missing more than half of school – has more than doubled from 0.8% to 2% This all affects their learning and has been shown to have long-term impact on their earnings in the future. The Department of Education believe that free breakfast clubs and the RISE programme “to help spread best practice and excellence across the whole school system” are the solutions to this continued rise in school absences.

Meanwhile the UK government do not want to address the spread of Covid that happens every time kids are back in schools. Even though we know how Covid can affect our cognitive function the UK government do not want to take any precautions in protecting children at schools who will continuously be exposed to Covid. No masks in classrooms, no air purifiers in the classrooms, no improvement to ventilation in school buildings and no alternative forms of learning for kids who are sick at home. Instead, the onus is solely placed on parents to *“Only keep your child off school when they are genuinely too ill to attend”