Government comes under pressure over school hours

THE Government is facing increasing pressure from teaching unions to delay the reopening of all schools in England amid fears over the spread of the new strain of Covid19.

The National Education Union (NEU) said all primary and secondary schools should remain closed for two weeks following the Christmas break, while the NASUWT has written to the Education Secretary calling for an ‘immediate nationwide move to remote education’ for all pupils.

The NEU has also advised primary school staff it is unsafe to return to classrooms on Monday.

On Friday, Gavin Williamson confirmed that all London primary schools will remain shut next week – rather than just those in certain boroughs as set out earlier in the week.

But unions say extending that to all schools in England is ‘the only sensible and credible option’.

General secretary of the NEU, Dr Mary Bousted, said: “The danger is that by opening schools as levels of infection are rising so high and are already so high amongst pupils, then we’re not going to break that chain and our NHS will become overwhelmed so we said all schools should be closed for the first two weeks.

“We regret to have to say that, we don’t want to have to say the schools will close but our fear is if we don’t do something now, they’re going to have to be closed for a much longer period later on this month.”

NASUWT general secretary Patrick Roach said it was ‘now abundantly clear’ that the pandemic was impacting on the ability of schools to operate normally.

“There is genuine concern that schools and colleges are not able to reopen fully and safely at this time,” he said.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) called for the Government to move all schools to home learning for a ‘brief and determined period for most children’, adding that the new strain had created ‘intolerable risk’ to schools, while the GMB union, which represents school support workers, said a consistent approach was needed, rather than ‘a postcode lottery’.