PM pleads for full classroom return
BORIS JOHNSON has issued a plea to parents to send their children back to the classroom when schools reopen next month.
The Prime Minister said the risk of contracting coronavirus in schools is “very small”, and that pupils face greater harm by continuing to stay away from the classroom.
Many pupils in England have not been to class since March when schools were closed except to look after vulnerable children and those of keyworkers.
Schools in Scotland reopened earlier this month, while those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are expected to welcome all pupils from the beginning of September.
Mr Johnson said: “I have previously spoken about the moral duty to reopen schools to all pupils safely, and I would like to thank the school staff who have spent the summer months making classrooms Covidsecure in preparation for a full return in September.
“We have always been guided by our scientific and medical experts, and we now know far more about coronavirus than we did earlier this year.
“As the Chief Medical Officer (Chris Whitty) has said, the risk of contracting Covid-19 in school is very small and it is far more damaging for a child’s development and their health and wellbeing to be away from school any longer.
“This is why it’s vitally important that we get our children back into the classroom to learn and to be with their friends. Nothing will have a greater effect on the life chances of our children than returning to school.”
His comments came after the UK’s chief medical officers issued a joint statement seeking to reassure parents that it was safe to send their children back to school.
They said ‘very few, if any’ children and teenagers would come to long-term harm from the virus solely by attending school, while there was a ‘certainty’ of harm from not returning. The chief and deputy chief medical officers said schools were not a ‘common route of transmission,’ and that teachers were not at any increased risk of dying compared to the general workingage population.
However, they noted that data from UK and international studies suggested transmission in schools may be largely staff to staff rather than pupils to staff.
“This reinforces the need to maintain social distancing and good infection control inside and outside classroom settings, particularly between staff members and between older children and adults,” they said.
The advisers noted that reopening schools has not been usually followed by a surge in Covid-19 transmission but it could push the reproduction rate – the so-called R rate – above one.