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A dispute has erupted between ministers, councils, teachers and unions over when and how to reopen schools, with principals threatened with legal action.
Local authority leaders and union bosses have accused ministers of going too fast in plans to reopen schools and want more local control over their return.
Patrick Roach, secretary general of the NASUWT union, said yesterday that he would take legal action against principals if schools are reopened without adequate protections for staff, in a letter seen by The Guardian.
But in an extraordinary twist, former Education Secretary David Blunkett accused unions of “working against the interests of children.”
And Sir Anthony Seldon, vice chancellor of Buckingham University and former principal of Wellington College, said: “Teachers want and need to go back to schools.
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“As long as scientists say they can, it’s completely wrong for unions to try to block and discourage teachers.”
While the current Secretary of Education, Gavin Williamson, has urged the unions to fulfill their “duty” and to stop any opposition so that the children return to their desks despite the pandemic.
Writing for him Daily Mail said that returning children to school is “in the interest of their well-being and education.”
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However, the Local Government Association (LGA) has said that schools should be allowed to make their own decisions about reopening, especially in areas where there is a higher proportion of black, Asian, and ethnic minority residents.
Councilwoman Judith Blake, chair of the LGA board of children and youth, said parents were “eager” to send their children back to school and more needed to be done to reassure families.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, announcing his plans to remove England from the closure, said that the reception, Y1 and Y6 students could return as soon as next month.
Earlier this week, Williamson said the medical and scientific council “said the time is right to start bringing schools back in a gradual and controlled manner.”
But the LGA is asking that some schools, in consultation with the councils, be given more flexibility locally about the reopening, as they argue that some communities are at greater risk.
It comes after an analysis by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggested that black men and women are more than four times more likely to die of coronavirus-related death than whites.
(Image: Daily Mirror)
Mary Bousted, joint secretary general of the National Education Union, said “a broader opening of schools, too soon, raises many unanswered questions about risks in poor communities.”
Blunkett told BBC Radio Four’s Today: “It is about how we can work together to make it work safely, we cannot 100 percent, as safely as possible.
“Anyone who works against that in my opinion is working against the interests of children.”
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