Schools must be much more alert to sexual abuse: Inspectorate

Schools must be much more alert to signals of sexual abuse, according to the Education Inspectorate. The number of sexual abuse cases involving teachers and pupils remains high, which is "very worrying," the Inspectorate said to AD.

Despite schools being temporarily closed for various lockdowns last academic year, the number of sex abuse reports received was almost as high as the last coronavirus-free school year 2018/2019. Last school year, the Inspectorate received 50 reports, compared to 59 in 2018/2019. Three-quarters of these reports were sent on to the police. 

Teachers and school staff are increasingly the adults involved in the sexual abuse, the Inspectorate said. In 2018, half of the reports received involved a school staff member sexually abusing a pupil. Last school year, that was the case in almost two-thirds of the reports. 

"Each case of sexual abuse is one too many," a spokesperson for the Education Inspectorate said to the newspaper. "A school should be a safe place."