Kids will pay for deep-clean bills
Billions have been found to fund the country’s enormous furlough scheme in an attempt to save jobs – and rightly so. Then there’s the money being spent on flu jabs which will cover more people this year. And £500million was set aside to fund the Eat Out to Help Out scheme in August.
Ministers have been only too keen to throw good money after bad in this pandemic, and yet they cannot find £216m to make our schools Covid-secure, leaving the cost of keeping our children safe to the headteachers of our already cash-strapped schools.
If you are going to protect anyone, you would think that children would come first, wouldn’t you? It’s an absolute disgrace. Ashley Smith, March, Cambs
This Government has wasted money on PPE that didn’t meet safety requirements, on various failed schemes and last-minute U-turns, yet they refuse to provide schools with the funds necessary to make it safe for our children to go back.
What will they do then, blame teachers when the R rate starts to rise? Ministers ought to hang their heads in shame over their disastrous handling of this pandemic. It is beyond shocking and our children and the country deserve so much better.
Lynne Francis South London
Surely it is the Government’s responsibility to cover the cost of preparing schools for the return of
pupils? Headteachers should not be put in a position of having to dip into the education budget. These coronavirus expenses could soar if staff start self-isolating or fall ill in significant numbers.
Not covering this cost is extremely shortsighted of the Government and could lead to children being denied the education to which they are entitled. Amanda Brown
Pulham St Mary, Norfolk
The estimated cost of HS2 is now reported to be £106billion and counting. Surely, this taxpayerfunded vanity project should be scrapped or at least mothballed during the pandemic?
The money saved would more than meet the cost of the PPE required by our schools, with the rest being spent on adequately funding the NHS and building new hospitals and schools.
Mark Iles, Newark, Notts
It is appalling that schools are being forced to cover the cost of PPE and sanitiser in order to make
them safe for children to return to lessons this month.
Boris Johnson said there would be no return to austerity, yet by not providing adequate funding to make classrooms Covid-proof and to provide adequate testing, this is exactly what is happening.
Ultimately, it is our children’s education that will suffer.
Chris Parker, Nuneaton, Warks
How can the Government expect schools to find £216million to keep our children safe? That is their job.
Schools are there to teach, and every penny of the education budget should be used for that purpose. Our schools must not have to pick up the tab for the Government’s mishandling of the coronavirus crisis.
Tony Howard Salford, Gtr Manchester
If this incompetent Tory government is so desperate to get our children back into the classrooms then they must pay to keep them safe. How can schools be expected to afford it out of their already limited budgets?