Children with symptoms can now apply for a test
CHILDREN aged five and over can now get a coronavirus test on demand, the Government has revealed.
Any youngster with symptoms of the virus can obtain a test through drive-in centres, mobile screening or an online booking.
The move is designed to quash the pleas of teaching unions who do not want to re-open schools on June 1, as the Government has proposed.
And it will alleviate the concerns of any parents who may be uneasy about sending their children back to school.
There have been growing tensions between ministers and teaching union leaders, who say their members should stay at home until the start of the new academic year in September.
Staff who are members of the UK’s biggest teaching union will be told to go through a 20-page checklist with their headteachers before returning to work.
The National Education Union said they will only be deemed safe if there is a “yes” to every question. But it looks increasingly likely that Downing Street will press ahead with its plans to reopen primary schools early next month and secondary schools shortly afterwards.
Ministers have drawn up proposals for a phased return that could see children go back to school in England on June 1.
Pupils will be placed in smaller classes with staggered start times and lunch breaks to limit the spread of the virus.
Not all unions are opposed to the reopening. The Association of School and College Leaders and the National Association of Head Teachers are both willing to reopen schools.
Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove is one of eight former education secretaries who have now backed the reopening of classrooms.
Mr Gove said: “If you really care about children, you will want them to be in school, you will want them to be learning, you’ll want them to have new opportunities, so you know to look to your responsibilities.”
A Department for Education spokeswoman said: “Getting children back to school and nurseries is in their best interests and all those working in education have a duty to work together to do so.”
Schools have been closed by the coronavirus for most pupils since March 20, staying open only for the children of key workers and for vulnerable children.
Many schools are already preparing for the June 1 return.
Staff at Marsden Infant School, near Huddersfield, are rearranging classrooms in order to maintain social distancing and are converting the assembly hall into an extra classroom.