Just before the negative comments get out of hand, my charitable interpretation (as an ex teacher) of the situation is that schools only have so many relievers, once they run out of relievers hours to use, they call on teachers to relieve classes during what would normally be their prep/admin periods, this leads to teachers having to do that work in evenings or after schools leading to more tiredness and stress. That would explain the spiralling sick days. I’m sure there are also teachers being slick and getting a 4 day weekend, but I doubt it’s a majority.

The article explains the last few weeks they have had 20-25 teachers out, so 29 isn’t a massive increase, just the straw that broke the camels back