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Now, retired parents, governors and teachers could be tied up to test students for Covid-19 despite the massive revolt over ministers’ 11th hour plans.
- Volunteers can be used instead of teachers to take quick tests next year
- The major education unions have threatened to ruin the New Years program
- Unions announced that schools will have their backing if they refuse to cooperate
- Approximately 5.5 million high school students will be homeschooled for one week in January
Retired parents, governors and teachers could administer Covid tests in schools despite a massive riot over the ministers’ plans at the last minute.
Volunteers instead of teachers can be used to run rapid tests in high schools in the New Year, Schools Minister Nick Gibb said yesterday.
But the main education unions threatened to ruin the program. They announced that the schools will have their support if they refuse to cooperate with the “inoperable” testing plans.
The Government has announced that around 5.5 million high school pupils in England will be homeschooled for a week in January and will only be summoned on site for Covid-19 testing.
Volunteers instead of teachers can be used to run rapid tests in high schools in the New Year, Schools Minister Nick Gibb said yesterday. In the photo, St Columbia Secondary School in Scotland
Only adolescents facing GCSE and A-levels in the summer, as well as the children of key workers and those in vulnerable situations, will have face-to-face learning as of January 4.
The government’s testing program was revealed Thursday afternoon, when thousands of schools were disintegrating because yesterday they were taking “inserted” days.
Details on how schools are expected to conduct testing will not be revealed until next week, over the Christmas break.
However, an NHS Test and Trace manual published Tuesday under separate plans for testing for staff suggested that schools may ‘want to use volunteers’ such as ‘parents, retired teachers, Red Cross, St John’s Ambulances and community organizations’ .
The manual suggests that testing 100 people in three ‘bays’ in a school would take three hours and involve nine staff members. This is based on 11 to 13 tests per hour. However, the Schools Week newspaper estimated that if the 3,456 of England’s state secondary schools tested 100 students on the same day, they would need 31,000 employees.
Mr Gibb defended the plans, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today show that the government had to “act fast” due to the “rapidly advancing pandemic”. He insisted that volunteers, like parents and governors, will not need DBS (Disclosure and Restriction Service) checks because they will be “supervised” by staff.
Students sit apart during a socially estranged language lesson at Longdendale High School. In a scathing joint statement, the unions warned that the tests in high schools will not be ready by early January, and said they should not be forced to implement them.
But the NASUWT union said it was “outrageous” that a background check would not be required. Kevin Courtney of the National Education Union said schools “will not be able to supervise all the volunteers that will be needed.”
In a scathing joint statement, the unions warned that the tests in high schools will not be ready by early January, and said they should not be forced to implement them.
The statement, signed by the Association of School and College Leaders, NASUWT, NEU, the National Association of Head Teachers, the National Governance Association, the Sixth Form Colleges Association and the Church of England office of education, read: ‘The suggestion that schools can safely recruit, train and organize a team of suitable volunteers for staff and run test stations at their facilities at the beginning of the new period is simply not realistic. ‘
Meanwhile, Robert Halfon, conservative chairman of the Commons education committee, said the delay in term dates would put “enormous pressure” on working parents.
He warned it would lead to “more lost learning.”
