AQW 27910/17-22

Mr Andrew Muir
Alliance Party
North Down

Tabled Date: 12/01/2022
Answered On Date: 17/01/2022
Priority Written: Yes

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education to outline why absences unrelated to COVID-19 are not collated from schools on a daily basis.

Answer:

The daily survey on staff absence began on Monday 10 January and was designed to be straightforward to complete to minimise the burden on schools at this time. Therefore, it originally only asked for information on COVID related absences.

However, following the launch of the survey the Department has been monitoring feedback from schools in relation to the inclusion of non-COVID related absence. In response to this, from Monday 17 January, the survey was extended to collect information on the number of teachers and classroom assistants “not on site today due to Non-COVID related absences”. This additional information will appear in the results from now on.

The Department will continue to review the response rate, content and frequency of the survey on a regular basis to ensure that the right balance is achieved between collecting the information that is needed and keeping the survey as user friendly as possible to avoid placing an additional burden on our schools.