NEW MINISTER TOLD: END THE COVID CHAOS
THE new Education Secretary must “get schoolchildren’s lives back to normal” and end the “Covid chaos” that has plagued the last 18 months, a senior Conservative MP has demanded.
Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench MPS, said the disruption caused by constant rule changes must stop.
Sir Graham, Tory MP for Altrincham and Sale West, urged Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi to make sure his department was calling the shots, rather than the Department of Health.
He said that while the country has largely returned to normal life, schools are still taking extreme measures to try to curb infections, including routine testing, cancelling assemblies and sports fixtures, isolating, separating and segregating pupils, enforcing mask wearing and preventing pupils “singing too loudly” in music lessons.
Sir Graham said: “Nadhim Zahawi will be judged on how effectively he gets schools back to normal and ensures that children of all ages become, once again, a priority for our nation.
“We need to ensure schools stay open through the winter and beyond, we need to make certain that proper, fair exams resume.
“We need to be clear that the education of our children isn’t an optional extra, it is at the core of a civilised society.
“If the new Secretary of State is to succeed, he must seize control of education policy, making sure that the Department of Health can advise but that he will decide.”
He also demanded safeguards to ensure children do not face discrimination or coercion over their Covid vaccination status. It comes after disturbing evidence of teachers publicly singling out pupils who said they would refuse the jab during the mass 12-15-year-old school rollout, which begins tomorrow.
Sir Graham said: “He needs to ensure no child goes to school and faces coercion, discrimination or educational disruption because of legitimate choices made by the child or that child’s parents. I am optimistic. Nadhim, we are all depending on you to get our children’s lives back to normal.”
Miriam Cates, Conservative MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, said: “We need a clear steer from the Department for Education that children are not treated any differently regardless of their vaccination status. It has a responsibility to make sure no child is discriminated against in school.”
Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation member Adam Finn yesterday warned of “aggression” between parents who wanted their kids vaccinated
and those who did not.the JCVI had advised against the mass vaccination of all 12- to 15-year-olds, but this was overruled on the grounds that it would aid the mental health of pupils by helping to prevent further lockdowns and school closures.
Prof Finn said: “I’ve had a lot of people contact me with very strong views. Either they insist they wish their children to be immunised without delay, or they would rather die than have their children immunised.
“So there are plenty of people with very strong views, and those could easily translate into quite aggressive attitudes.
“People should be tolerant of each other. Parents who have their children immunised should be tolerant of those that decide not to, and vice versa.” Professor Finn said that while it is not “essential” for children to have a
coronavirus jab, it is “perfectly sensible” for them to do so.
He said people should not become too “agonised” about it, adding: “The risks on either side are not that high. It’s not like these children are at great risk from Covid, or indeed that they’re at great risk from the vaccination.”
According to the Government’s modelling, the vaccine could help slow the spread of Covid and could lead to 41 days of schooling saved per 1,000 children between October and March next year.
An analysis by Professor David Paton, of Nottingham University, said this would equate to an average of 15 minutes per child over this period. This could be offset by the time it takes to carry out the vaccination as well as the likelihood of missed school days due to any short-term side effects.
Another argument made for restrictions in schools was the risk of long Covid, which, it was claimed, could affect as many as 10 per cent of children who had been infected.
However, last week a survey from the Office of National Statistics found long Covid symptoms rarely persist beyond 12 weeks in children and adolescents, unlike adults. It found the rate of symptoms among children after 12 weeks was only up to 1.7 per cent.
The parents’ campaign group UsforThem has a dossier of cases in which children have already been discriminated against. This includes a girl, 11, who could not ask her teacher for help because she was exempt from masks.
She wrote: “I may not have gotten very far on this but that’s because I can’t ask you for help since I don’t wear a mask and we can’t talk.” In another case, exempt children were made to sit facing a wall.
● The High Court has been asked to pause the rollout of Covid vaccinations for healthy children as lawyers argue more checks are needed to ensure they are safe.
A judicial review has been brought by lawyers at Jackson Osborne which applied for an urgent order to challenge the temporary authorisation of the vaccines for 12-15 year olds.
A decision about whether there is an arguable case and, if so, whether the rollout should be paused until the case can be heard, is expected on Tuesday.
The challenge will argue there is no legal, moral or medical justification for children getting the jab.