Ministers: Unions risk destroying a decade of progress in just 10 weeks
Former Secretaries of State from both parties warn of widening education gap between rich and poor pupils
POLITICIANS from across the political divide united yesterday to warn that union opposition to re-opening schools next month risks devastating the life chances of the UK’s poorer children.
Former Education Secretaries joined forces to raise fears that the progress made over the past decade in closing the academic gap between children from high and low income households could be wiped out in just a few weeks of lockdown.
Left-wing unions are opposing plans for a partial re-opening of schools from June, citing fears that neither children nor teachers will be safe from catching the virus.
Yesterday, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson issued an impassioned plea for unions to realise it is children who will lose out most from further delays.
He said: ‘I don’t want children missing out on getting back into class next month, to see their teachers and friends again, to learn and thrive, when the scientific advice suggests we should be in a position to do that.
‘The poorest children, the most disadvantaged children, the children who do not always have the support they need at home, will be the ones who will fall furthest behind.’
He also insisted the Government was taking ‘cautious’, careful steps in gradually re-opening schools.
One of his Conservative predecessors, Nicky Morgan said: ‘If we don’t start to get schools in England back up and running soon, their hard work over the last ten years to ensure disadvantaged children keep up with their peers could be lost in just ten weeks.’
Ms Morgan warned that the children who were missing out on the most schooling were ‘ the ones the unions should be looking out for’.
She said: ‘We know there are children who are struggling to even get online – three kids sharing mum’s phone.
‘I know the disadvantage gap – if you miss those crucial months in primary school, it becomes harder and it becomes more challenging for the teachers to help those kids catch up.’
Damian Hinds, another former Tory Education Secretary, said: ‘Some of the most vulnerable children in society are losing out the most from not being at school. Children from less well-off families are the ones who may not have access to broadband for vital online lessons at home, or indeed the space.
‘There’s a real risk here that by blanket opposition to getting just some primary school pupils back from the start of June, teaching unions would hurt the children and families that need help the most.
‘After all, children in better-off households are probably more likely to be able to have on-line tuition, while their mums and dads are also more likely to be in the sort of jobs that allows them to work from home during the lockdown.’
Lord Blunkett, a former Labour Education Secretary, writing in today’s Mail on Sunday, says the opposition of the teaching unions to a return to the classrooms was ‘ both destructive and wrong’, because ‘preventing children from getting an education will not only undermine dedicated teachers and the economy, it will punish some of the most vulnerable children in the country’.
Lord Blunkett adds: ‘ Many of those pupils from disadvantaged homes have no access to a quiet place in which they can learn, let alone a suitable computer.
‘Only one in seven of the vulnerable children currently entitled to a temporary classroom place has taken up the offer.’ And last night, Tory MP Tom Hunt, a member of the Commons education select committee, accused the teaching unions of engaging in some ‘bizarre reverse class war’ which would only widen the gap between poorer pupils and middle-class children.
He said: ‘From the head teachers I talk to, it’s the ones from schools in the poorer areas or with children at most need who are keenest at getting back into class.
‘And it’s the better-off, middleclass families who are most able to survive the lockdown.
‘They’re the children whose parents can provide them with the broadband – and the space at home – to do vital online tuition.
‘The less well-off kids are probably the ones that are suffering most, with less access to wifi and less participation in distance learning. By fighting a return to school, teaching unions are only hurting those they should help the most. It’s like the unions are for some reason engaged in some bizarre reverse class war where they are essentially ganging up against the interests of t he l ess well- off and widening the education and wealth gap with the middle-class.’
Many schools have been open throughout the crisis to cater for vulnerable children and the children of key workers.
But the teacher unions, led by the main National Education Union, have raised fears that it is too early in the course of the pandemic to proceed to a general re-opening of schools.
This weekend, the British Medical Association threw its weight behind the unions, warning that ‘we cannot risk a second spike’ of the pandemic.
However, Jenny Harries, the deputy chief medical officer, sought to calm fears – suggesting that in the next fortnight, infection rates could come down.
She told the daily Downing Street briefing: ‘I think parents and teachers should not be thinking that every school is likely to be swarming with cases.
‘We’re moving in quite a different direction now.’
The NEU union denied it was being obstructive and insisted safety ‘for children, their families and school staff ’ remained the key issue.
Joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said: ‘The NEU’s approach is not political but instead turns on the science.
‘The NEU has engaged with Government, laying out the questions we are seeking reassurances on and also suggesting five tests the Government could meet.’