Parents urge ministers to resist unions over masks in schools
East London principal said he would not insist that children wear a covering inside the classroom
THE Government must resist pressure from the unions over face masks in the classroom, former ministers and parents have warned.
Boris Johnson has been told not to “pander” to teaching union bosses who have demanded that children should continue to wear masks during lessons until at least June 21.
Three former Department for Education ministers have urged the Government to keep its promise to remove the requirement on May 17 when step three of the road map is due to come into effect.
Tim Loughton, a Tory MP and former children’s minister, said masks in the classroom should be dropped “as a matter of urgency”.
He added: “At every step of the way, the National Education Union seems to have been at the vanguard of making it more difficult for children to be taught in classrooms.”
Robert Halfon, the Conservative chair of the education select committee and former minister, said the Government must stick to May 17 as the date for ending masks in the classroom “like super glue”. He told The Daily Telegraph: “If the rest of society is opening up it seems clear that the face masks need to go on this day.” Chris Skidmore, a Tory MP and education minister until last year, said the “blanket national policy” for children to wear masks in lessons should be removed on May 17 and only used to contain a local outbreak, for example.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, also called for the end of masks in lessons, adding: “The evidence now from all the schools is that there have been no more infections than in the rest of society.”
Their intervention comes after several unions, including Unite, Unison and GMB, wrote to the Education Secretary claiming that face coverings are “essential” for Covid prevention in schools and should continue to be required until at least the penultimate week of June. Molly Kingsley, cofounder of the parent campaign group Usforthem, said: “The Government’s duty is to children, not unions. They must not keep pandering to unions that don’t have pupils’ interests at heart.”
‘It is killing informal interaction in the classroom and to me that is killing education’
WHEN David Perks became the first head teacher to speak out against face masks in the classroom, he believed he was taking a stand for common sense.
The principal at East London Science School had hoped that by openly defying the Government’s new guidance, other heads would feel emboldened to follow his lead.
But instead, The Daily Telegraph has learned that he was placed under investigation by the school’s governing body and subjected to immense pressure from the Government to retract his remarks.
In February, Mr Perks said that students will be left to decide whether they wish to wear a mask in the classroom, but that the school will not enforce it.
“It puts a psychological and physical barrier between staff and children that is just destructive,” he said at the time.
He added: “To do now what we have not done for a year and to put a restriction on our ability to teach children just does not add up.”
It has now emerged that following his remarks to The Telegraph, officials from the Department for Education contacted the school and asked them to clarify their policy on face masks.
Sue Baldwin, a regional schools commissioner at the DFE, wrote to the school saying she was “concerned about the stance” following “worrying articles”, according to correspondence seen by the magazine Schools Week.
She was later assured by Adam Atashzai, the school’s chairman of governors, that “despite his personal views” the head teacher would follow the Government’s guidance. Mr Perks declined to comment.
In February, the Prime Minister announced that when schools returned on March 8 secondary pupils would need to wear face masks anywhere indoors where they could not socially distance, including in the classroom as well as in corridors.
At the time he said it was a temporary measure and would be reviewed by Easter – but it was then extended until May 17 at the earliest.
There is now growing concern about the requirement for secondary pupils to wear masks in lessons, despite the very low Covid rates in schools.
Dennis Hayes, emeritus professor of education at Derby University, said that mandating the use of face masks in the classroom is a “terrible thing to do”.
He said: “It takes away all the subtlety of education, all the expressions.
“It distorts the whole teacher-pupil relationship. You can get that one quizzical look or an expression with your mouth that says ‘I don’t agree with this’ or ‘I don’t understand this’.
“It is killing informal interaction in the classroom and to me that is killing education.”
Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, is facing two legal challenges over the guidance on face masks in the classroom. 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”.
The parents’ campaign group said they have received multiple reports of children suffering from headaches, nausea, fatigue, irritability and facial rashes as a result of wearing masks during the school day. Separately, a 12-year-old from Sheffield sought an injunction against a school’s policy on face masks but a High Court judge threw out the claim yesterday.