School closures in UK imminent
LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the government would be taking decisions imminently on the possible closure of schools, with some forced to partially or fully close due to the spread of coronavirus.
Head-teachers are being forced to make unilateral decisions about closing as they struggle to cope amid rising staff and student absences.
This comes amid confusion about why schools stay open when the government has stepped up advice to curb social contact to slow the spread of the virus.
Britain has so far resisted pressure to follow Italy, France, and Spain by officially shutting schools. The government has said school closures will not halt the outbreak and will deprive the healthcare system of workers who will be forced to look after their children.
“The House (of Commons) should expect further decisions to be taken imminently on schools and how to make sure that we square the circle both of making sure that we stop the spread of the disease but also of making sure that we relieve as much as we can pressure on our National Health Service,” Johnson told parliament.
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders union, said headteachers were saying they were struggling to keep their institutions open beyond Friday. Between a tenth and a fifth of teachers are currently self-isolating but the number is rising, he said.
Government chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance defended the policy before a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, saying school closures were “on the table”, but not a step the government should be taking at this time.
But Neil Ferguson, a professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London, whose modelling of the spread of the coronavirus swayed the government’s response, has said that closures would reduce the transmission of the disease.
The National Education Union said there was an “apparent contradiction” between banning mass gatherings and keeping schools open in a letter to the prime minister. – Reuters