Schools militant calls for strikes over reopening

BRITAIN’S biggest teaching union has been urged to show its ‘collective strength’ by threatening to strike over schools reopening next week.

Martin Powell-Davies, who is running for deputy general secretary of the National Education Union, has branded Boris Johnson’s plan ‘completely reckless’.

The hardline activist is instead demanding a gradual reopening of schools – and only when case rates drop dramatically.

He is calling on the NEU, which has more than 450,000 members, to back his calls for industrial action if these conditions are not met.

The intervention comes after the Prime Minister announced schools would return on March 8.

Mr Powell-Davies said it was ‘completely crazy’ to think this was safe when infection rates were still over 150 per 100,000 in parts of northern England.

He added: ‘Wait until more people are vaccinated. Wait until infection rates are lower and have a gradual return of pupils.’ Wider opening should only occur when local rates fall below 100 cases per 100,000, he argued, and even then reduced class sizes should remain until it is under 50 per 100,000. He added: ‘If those rates and those steps are not met then we have to say we ballot... so that if a spike does occur by Easter, we will be there with an industrial action ballot ready to protect our members and our communities.’ Last night Tory MP Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons education committee, said: ‘I say to this individual: Less of the class warfare.

‘The first thought in mind should be about the kids, whose life chances have been damaged, both in terms of mental health, learning, and safeguarding by being away from school for so long.

‘I call on [the joint general secretaries] to immediately disassociate themselves from any call to strikes.’

The Government’s Sage advisory committee has warned opening schools all at once could push the

R rate, which tracks how quickly the virus spreads, above 1.

But chief medical officer Chris Whitty has said there are huge advantages for children to be in school ‘from a health point of view, mental and physical, as well as from educational and a life-course point of view’. The NEU’s joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said the executive had agreed to continue making the case that the Government should have followed Sage’s advice of a phased return.

The NEU said Mr Powell-Davies was not a member of the executive and it would not comment on the stances of candidates.

Prince Charles has praised teachers for their ‘dogged determination’ over the last year. At a virtual leadership conference he said he was ‘enormously impressed’ with the efforts of school leaders and staff to overc ome the ‘mountain of logistical challenges’.

‘Serious and imminent risk’