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Up to 25,000 teachers in England may have already been forced out of the classroom and into self-isolation at home amid a national shortage of Covid testing just fifteen days after schools reopened, research suggests.
With some schools reporting that up to a fifth of their teaching staff failed to take an exam, unions warned that the crisis was spiraling out of control and compromised plans for a full return to education, which carried the risk of ” default lock “.
An academy trust leader said 740 public schools in England were closed partially or fully due to Covid-related issues, meaning tens of thousands of students are trapped at home and their parents are unable to go to work.
Meanwhile, some private schools are paying £ 120 to test symptomatic students and teachers after many failed to get the tests locally. “If schools can afford to take the hit, private companies have no problem providing tests,” said a teacher at a private Guildford school.
State schools are quickly using the 10 test kits provided by the government at the beginning of the quarter, regardless of the size of the school, as teachers and students suspected of Covid struggle to book exams.
On Wednesday, Boris Johnson admitted to MPs that the testing system “has huge problems” as new figures showed nearly 4,000 cases in the UK in the last 24 hours, the highest daily total since early May.
The government responded to the growing crisis in schools by establishing a hotline starting Thursday for bosses to seek advice and report cases after being told that staff were waiting hours or even days for news from public health teams. local.
Principals representing more than 16,000 pupils in Gateshead in northeast England, which is on the government’s watch list due to its high infection rate, said the lack of Covid testing would “break” some schools and that their plan to return the children to the classroom had “collapsed” due to the crisis.
A letter to MPs from the Gateshead Primary Teachers Association, which represents 67 schools, cited “major problems” with staff and children who failed to get a test and those who did took “too long” to get. a result.
Mustafaa Malik, president of the association and principal of Harlow Green Elementary School in Gateshead, said that a fifth of its teaching staff was isolating, as well as a “double-digit” number of its 400 students. She said there were considerable absences across the city, where the infection rate is nearly three times higher than the England average.
“It is just unsustainable,” he said. “Parents may feel that anxiety increases. It has been necessary to convince them that it is safe, but we are beginning to feel fear in some communities. ”
The cost of paying substitute teachers to cover staff absences would break some school budgets and year-round groups would have to be sent home because principals cannot afford their teaching, Malik added.
A survey of 6,700 teachers in England by the Teacher Tapp app found that 4% were withdrawing from school for Covid-related reasons on Tuesday. That would equate to around 25,000 teachers nationally, with primary school teachers more likely to be isolated, like those teaching in the Midlands or North West England.
Rebecca Allen, a professor of education at the University of Brighton and chief analyst for Teacher Tapp, an app that conducts anonymous daily surveys of teachers and school leaders, said the results suggested the cold fall and winter season was going to wreak havoc on the number of staff.
“We must not overlook the fact that more than 7 million children are in school with more learning than during the confinement. But the government needs to add teachers to its priority list for testing, and it needs to find a way to help schools pay the cost of hiring substitute teachers to replace those who isolate themselves.
“Otherwise, many schools without a surplus will have no choice but to close after spending their budgets on substitute teachers.”
The Guardian understands that more than 30 schools in Oldham, one of the worst affected areas in England, have had to send at least a year to a group home due to a Covid case. In the wider Greater Manchester, more than 110 schools have reported at least one case of coronavirus, with the number increasing daily.
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, said the lack of exams and schools was “causing real distress” for families and teachers. “It needs to be repaired and repaired urgently,” he said.
Steve Chalke, founder of the Oasis Charitable Trust, which runs 52 schools in England, many in disadvantaged areas, said 1,200 children in two elementary schools and six secondary schools within the chain were currently at home in self-isolation.
A single confirmed case in a Bristol secondary school resulted in 187 pupils in the same protective bubble being sent home. In some cases, groups of several years had been sent into self-isolation under the guidance of local public health authorities.
“Everything is tragic,” said Chalke, who was among school leaders pushing for an early return to school after closing. “This morning we were told that 740 schools in England are partially or totally closed. We are frustrated. Everything could have been avoided. Yes boris [Johnson] He said it is our moral duty to go back to school, it is a moral duty to come up with a plan to keep schools open. “
School principals and governors wrote to the prime minister on Wednesday imploring him to personally take charge of the crisis in Covid testing. The National Association of Teacher Principals, the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and the National Governance Association surpassed Education Secretary Gavin Williamson to tell Johnson that they felt compelled to express “growing concern.”
ASCL Secretary General Geoff Barton said: “I think this will feel like a default lockdown; it will be more frustrating for parents because you cannot predict if it will happen.”
In announcing the new hotline for schools, Williamson said: “The number of confirmed cases in schools remains low, but to protect schools it is important that principals continue to have access to timely support and advice. This new dedicated counseling line will help schools, universities or early childhood settings to implement the most appropriate public health measures, once a case is confirmed. “
