U-TURN OVER WEARING MASKS IN SCHOOLS
FACE masks must be worn by pupils in secondary schools after Boris Johnson made an 11th-hour U-turn days before classrooms reopen.
Headteachers will have discretion over whether students wear the coverings, but the Government will no longer advise against their use.
In lockdown areas such as Greater Manchester, which have greater restrictions, wearing face coverings will become mandatory in school corridors where social distancing is more difficult.
The Prime Minister bowed to pressure late yesterday after scores of headteachers broke ranks to urge their use, backed by Labour and trade unions.
He had earlier indicated he would “look at the changing medical evidence as we go on” but insisted schools would be safe regardless.
The new guidance came after Scotland said secondary school pupils should wear masks in communal areas and on school buses, and days before millions of students are due to return to schools across England.
Prudent
The change triggered an angry backlash from Conservative MPs, some of whom had publicly challenged him not to change tack for schools in England.
Conservative MP Marcus Fysh, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Education, said: “Masks should be banned in schools.
“The country should be getting back to normal, not pandering to this scientifically illiterate guff.”
Huw Merriman, Tory chair of the transport select committee, said masks in schools would “further downgrade the learning environment”. He said: “Like every other risk in our daily lives, we need to embed Covid and proportionately live with it.”
The Government has been under pressure to review its advice on masks in schools after the World Health Organization updated its guidance at the weekend to say that face coverings were useful to curb the spread of Covid-19 where physical distancing between adults and pupils aged 12 and over was impossible, or in areas of high transmission.
Scotland confirmed on Tuesday that secondary schools would be given “obligatory” guidance on pupils wearing face coverings, while Wales is reviewing its advice.
Announcing the changes last night, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said: “Our priority is to get children back to school safely.At each stage we have listened to the latest medical and scientific advice. We have therefore decided to follow the World Health Organization’s new advice. Outside of local lockdown areas, face coverings won’t be required in schools, though schools will have the flexibility to introduce measures if they believe it is right in their specific circumstances.
“I hope these steps will provide parents, pupils and teachers with further reassurance.”
Speaking yesterday Mr Johnson said: “All our scientific advice is that schools are safe, it’s absolutely crucial people understand that.
“The overwhelming priority is to get all pupils into school.And I think that the schools, the teachers, they’ve all done a fantastic job of getting ready and the risk to children’s health, the risk to children’s wellbeing from not being in school is far greater than the risk from Covid.”
He added: “As the chief medical officer, all our scientific advisers have said, schools are safe.”
It is yet another reversal on education policy, coming after the exams fiasco and a U-turn on free school meals during the holidays.
The ASCL head teachers’ union said yesterday parents and schools
needed more clarity and “reassurance” over the evidence for not allowing masks.
The union’s leader Geoff Barton said earlier: “If there is going to be any U-turn by the Government better it does this sooner rather than later, because the start of the new term is imminent”. But Margaret Harris, a WHO spokesperson, told Sky News that the wearing of face masks in schools should still be a “local decision”. “The really important point here is what happens in the schools, the decisions in the schools, are something that should be made by the local authorities in conjunction with the teachers and the parents in each area. “Because what you need to be very aware of is, what is the transmission status? What is actually going on in your community? So the first thing we’re saying is: really understand your transmission.” Despite the current guidance against using masks, some schools are already making their own decisions.
The Oasis academy trust, with more than 50 schools in England, said it is providing visors for its teachers and secondary pupils will have to wear masks in corridors.
Steve Chalke, chief executive of the Oasis academy trust, said there was a responsibility to make schools “as safe as we possibly can”.
He said wearing masks would become part of a wider safety plan, including hand washing and keeping pupils apart in separate “bubbles”.
Tory chair of the Education Select Committee Robert Halfon pointed out that current scientific advice shows that face masks are “not required” in schools.
He told BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme: “Clearly at the moment the science in England is that masks are not required.”
Kate Green, Labour’s shadow education Secretary, said: “There is a growing body of evidence that the use of facemasks in communal areas in secondary schools helps protect students and staff and drive down transmission.”