End of masks in classroom as ministers defy unions

Bosses’ stance giving us a bad name, say teachers after PM pushes on with roadmap

BORIS JOHNSON will defy trade union pressure and announce on Monday that secondary school children will no longer have to wear masks in lessons, The Daily Telegraph understands.

The Prime Minister will confirm that the government guidance is changing from May 17, when England moves to step three of his reopening roadmap, according to several senior Whitehall sources.

Officials at the Department for Education are drafting the guidance, which will drop the recommendation that English secondary school pupils should wear masks in classrooms, though still encourage their use in corridors.

Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, said that the success of the vaccine rollout and the low levels of Covid cases in schools had cleared the way for the change.

“As infection rates continue to decline and our vaccination programme rolls out successfully, we plan to remove the requirement for face coverings in the classroom at step three of the roadmap,” Mr Williamson said.

Education trade unions, which had pushed for masks to be worn in lessons into summer, threatened to defy the change yesterday. The guidance is only advisory, meaning that teachers will retain some autonomy about what to do in the classroom.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said he would stick by teachers who still make pupils wear masks, saying that they should remain in place as a “precautionary measure”.

Yesterday it emerged that union members were quitting over its stance on masks. One member of the NEU, who intends to resign this week, said: “They are giving teachers a bad name. People are dropping out of the union left, right and centre.”

A government source said that the trade union position amounted to hypocrisy, since members will be able to socialise inside homes without masks from May 17, when the rules on indoor household mixing are relaxed.

“The very same teachers and union leaders will be entirely happy to go to their mate’s house and mix inside without masks. But they’re against going inside a classroom without a mask,” the source said.

Current government guidance says that pupils in secondary schools should wear masks in corridors and communal areas if they cannot social distance. This will not change.

However, the guidance also says that pupils and teachers in secondary schools should wear masks in lessons where social distancing is not possible.

There were hopes that the classroom masks rule could be dropped after the Easter holidays but, despite lobbying inside government from Mr Williamson, the guidance was extended.

However, Mr Johnson and members of his inner circle have been convinced of the need to lift the rule, according to well placed government sources.

One said it was more than “99 per cent” certain that the change would be announced on Monday, when Mr Johnson is due to give a press conference on reopening. Two other government sources said similar.

A final decision will be taken over the weekend or on Monday when scientists present the latest Covid data to No 10.

Mr Williamson said: “Removing face masks will hugely improve interactions between teachers and students, while all other school safety measures will remain in place to help keep the virus out of classrooms.”

Many of the leading trade unions representing teachers including the NEU, NASUWT, Unison, Unite and GMB have been pushing to keep masks in class.

There were, however, signs of discomfort with the trade union position from inside some unions.

One NEU representative said that the union had failed to consult with members before writing to the Education Secretary this week and urging him to keep masks in the classroom until Jun 21 at the earliest.

“When they say the union supports this, who are they speaking for, who have they asked? I genuinely don’t know,” he said.

‘They are giving teachers a bad name. People are dropping out of the union left, right and centre’

‘It is important to see what effect the next opening up on May 17 has before removing this measure’

THE country’s biggest teaching union is seeing members quit over its stance on face masks, it has emerged.

Teachers say the National Education Union (NEU) is giving the profession a “bad name” by campaigning for children to keep wearing masks in class.

It comes as an insider reveals that the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) was not consulted over the policy to introduce masks in lessons – a decision affecting 3.4 million children.

One NEU rep said it failed to consult members before writing to the Education Secretary this week urging him to keep masks in the classroom until at least June 21.

“When they say the union supports this, who are they speaking for? Who have they asked? I genuinely don’t know,” he said. The rep, who is now considering leaving the NEU, said he is “astounded” that the teaching profession has not done more to challenge the guidance on masks, adding: “We should be speaking up for children.”

Earlier this week several unions – including the NEU, the National Association Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) together with Unite, Unison and GMB – wrote to the Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, claiming that face coverings are “essential” in schools.

The Prime Minister announced in February that secondary pupils would need face masks indoors where they could not socially distance, including classrooms and corridors, when they returned to school on March 8.

He said it was a temporary measure to be reviewed by Easter but despite vocal opposition – including from more than 30 Tory MPS – it was then extended until May 17 at the earliest.

Mr Williamson is facing two legal challenges. The first, from the National Deaf Children’s Society, argued that the guidance on face masks was “unlawful, irrational and inconsistent” with his legal duties. The second, from Usforthem, said there was “no credible scientific evidence” to support the policy, which raises “serious questions of children’s health” as well as being “deleterious to their education”.

The parents’ campaign group have received reports of children suffering from headaches, nausea, fatigue, irritability and facial rashes as a result of wearing masks during the school day.

One of the Government’s scientific advisors said that Sage was not consulted on the decision to recommend face masks to be worn in the classroom.

Dr Gavin Morgan, at University College London who sits on the Scientific Pandemic Insights Group on Behaviours, known as SPI-B, said that Sage should have been asked to look at the issue before it became policy.

“From a psychological point of view, I don’t think [face masks in the classroom] are a good thing,” he said.

“Masks are negative, they hide emotions and feelings and they are an impediment to communication.”

Dr Morgan said he contributed to a Sage paper last summer which warned of the “emotional cost” masks posed to schoolchildren. But the Government’s scientific advisors were not asked to look specifically at the issue ahead of the Prime Minister’s policy announcement in February.

An NEU member, who intends to quit this week, said: “They are giving teachers a bad name. People are dropping out of the union left right and centre.”

Another teacher and former union rep quit NASUWT after 14 years of membership in protest at their stance on face masks which left her feeling “ignored, unsupported and betrayed”.

“I wrote to the union about how I felt unrepresented and had not been balloted about this intervention,” she said.

“The union response was dismissive, stating that they were protecting the majority of members and that others wanted the masks in schools.”

John Roberts, chief executive of Edapt, set up in 2012 to provide legal and employment support for teachers as an apolitical alternative to unions, said membership has surged 35 per cent in the past year.

“We see spikes in subscriptions every time the unions take a hard line on issues,” he said. “We have seen this with abolishing GCSES, banning exclusions or things like face masks.” Mr Roberts added: “We saw spikes of a similar nature during times of industrial action, both nationally and at a local level over the past nine years. But the growth that we have seen over the last 12 months have been significant.”

A teacher from Kent said she has recently quit the NEU over its stance on masks, after over a decade of union membership, to join Edapt.

“I don’t know any teachers who want to wear a mask all day and I certainly don’t know any teachers who want children to wear them,” she said.

“I didn’t feel like they were speaking for me. Face masks in the classroom are absolute madness and disproportionate to the risk. They make it hard to know who needs support academically.”

The NEU said: “Schools are doing a very good job of keeping pupils and staff safe with the containment measures they are adopting – of which mask wearing is a part.

“We will be very pleased when these measures are no longer needed – but it’s important to see what effect the next opening up on May 17 has before removing this measure.”