Parents urged to get children vaccinated to keep them in school

PARENTS have been warned by ministers that children could lose out on faceto-face learning unless the vaccine take-up improves.

Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, and Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, have written a joint letter to parents, urging them to get their children vaccinated.

The letter explains that keeping children in school is a priority for the Government

but it needs parents’ help to ensure pupils “are able to stay in faceto-face learning”.

Mothers and fathers should encourage their children to “come forward for the Covid-19 vaccine”, the letter says, adding that this is “one of the best things young people can do” to protect themselves and those around them.

The ministers intervened as vaccine take-up among 12 to 15-year-olds appears to have stalled in England, with just over one in 10 (11.6 per cent) of the age group vaccinated. Meanwhile, in Scotland 36.3 per cent of the same age group has been vaccinated,

Mr Javid and Mr Zahawi’s letter has been sent to secondary schools to circulate to parents.

“We know that students have missed a lot of time in school and college since the pandemic started, and that there is no substitute for face-to-face learning,” the letter said.

“Keeping students in the classroom in the coming months is therefore a Government priority, both for their immediate and longer-term wellbeing.”

The ministers said that while children are at very low risk of serious illness from Covid, it remains important that they are vaccinated to “reduce the spread” of the virus.

“Young people who get ill will need to miss school or college, and may spread it to others,” they added.

“That is why we are encouraging you all to support your children to get vaccinated and to continue to test regularly.

This will help to detect cases early, reduce spread, and keep students in education.”

Head teachers have complained that the rollout in schools, which started last month, has been “shambolic”.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “In some cases the vaccinations have started to happen but not enough trained staff have turned up to schools. Or they say, ‘we will do it next week’ and then they shift it to another date. It is hugely frustrating. At the moment there are question marks over how seriously it is being taken.”

The plan to give a single dose of the Pfizer-biontech jab to 12 to 15-year-olds was given the green light on Sept 13.

When recommending it to ministers, Prof Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, said he and his Uk-wide counterparts had taken into account the impact of the pandemic on schooling, as well as the risks to children’s mental health from missing classes.