secondary school attendance in england
has fallen further due to covid19
down from 87 to 83 and there's growing
evidence that the picture is far worse
in many areas in the north of the
country
a coalition of business and council
leaders in the north of england says the
government needs to rethink whether
holding exams next year is fair
our education editor branwyn jeffries
reports now from oldham
odom has been hit hard by coronavirus
its schools feeling the impact teachers
and pupils self isolating just keeping
going sometimes a challenge
as a school of fifteen hundred to have
nine hundred children out makes it nine
impossible
to be able to operate normally to have a
quarter of my teaching staff isolating
for two weeks
even though they'll do their best online
and giving every bit of support they can
to a child
it doesn't beat being in the classroom
with that expert for you
is this part of the same bigger debate
about fairness about free school meals
i think uh our major concern is that if
you're a young person hearing this
information now
your value your worth your dignity isn't
really being respected in the same way
it should be
the national figures don't tell the full
story of what's happening
across the north of england what data
we've seen
shows that a third of teacher cases of
coronavirus at one point
were in the northwest of england and
pupil attendance in
secondary schools has fallen as low as
60 or
70 percent raising huge questions about
the fairness
of next year's exams because many
schools in the south
have reached half term barely affected
maths
english science rs history
like many parents in oldham kelly is
worried gabriel is due to sit gcses next
year
i think they'll try and make us sit them
as as much as possible
so i'm hoping that we will but i also do
think that there's a pos
a good possibility that we won't be and
i just don't think it's a level playing
field if students are in school down
south because they're not as badly
affected
compared to a lot of the young people up
in the north it's adding a great deal of
pressure to them
we'd like a plan b that's an ongoing
assessment
for teachers like vic it's been
exhausting he's self-isolating after
contact with the case
day to day it's been really difficult to
plan for education in the classroom
really difficult to plan who's going to
be
in the classroom really challenging no
planning
particularly around cover so you've had
cover lessons being done
you've had teachers covering each other
which has seen an increase in workload
and stress
schools in the north fare a winter of
disruption
backup plans for exams are promised by
christmas
plans needed to ensure fairness from
north
to south brownman jeffries bbc news
oldham