Pupils’ education suffered from a 60 per cent rise in teacher sick days and record vacancies in England last year, new data has shown.
The average number of sick days taken by all teachers rose to 6.3 days in 2021-22, up from 3.9 days in the previous year.
Almost 68 per cent of teachers took sick leave in the 2012-22 academic year, up from 45 per cent in the previous year and around 55 per cent pre-pandemic.
Teachers who took sick leave were off for an average of 9.3 days, compared with about 7.5 days prior to the pandemic.
The figures do not include non-attendance caused by isolation and shielding due to Covid-19. However, school leaders said that Covid-19 infections were still a major driver of staff sickness.
Workforce data published by the Department for Education also showed that experienced teachers are leaving the profession in record numbers and classroom vacancies hit a record high of 0.5 per cent, or 2,334, in November 2022.
