Allowing mass absence from school is an inexcusable betrayal of children
For months ministers have behaved as though school is something that can be taken or left. Rowing back on that now is going to be hard
‘Just one day off can hamper children's life chances.’ This is the dire warning government ministers once issued to parents. ‘Every extra day missed from school can affect grades,’ we were told.
That was in 2016. Back then, the Department for Education worried about an overall absence rate of 4.6%. They were concerned about a 0.1% increase in days missed because of ‘the rise in influenza’.
How quaint this all seems now. On one day last week, 14.3% of all state school pupils were absent. A total of 1.05 million pupils missed that ‘one day’ that could ‘affect grades’ and their ‘life chances’. This was not down to the flu and neither was it because of Covid infections. Almost three quarters of these perfectly healthy absent children were forced to self-isolate simply because a child in their bubble had tested positive for Covid.
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