[ad_1]
Pressure is mounting on the government to keep all schools in England closed when the new term begins this week amid fears about the spread of COVID-19.
But it comes like Ofsted Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman said that children’s education cannot be “suspended” for months while the country waits for the coronavirus pandemic to subside.
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, he said: “The good news is that almost everyone now recognizes the importance of balancing the risks of transmitting infections with the harm to children from keeping schools closed.
“There is a real consensus that schools should be the last places to close and the first to reopen, and having championed this since last spring, I welcome it.”
Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Primary schools will be closed in London
He added: “Because it is becoming increasingly clear that children’s lives cannot simply be put on hold while we wait for vaccination programs to take effect and for waves of infection to subside.
“We cannot suspend the learning of young people or their broader development.”
The government has said it will only close schools and switch to “remote education” as a last resort, but Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said on Friday that primary schools in London’s 32 boroughs will remain closed next week, in instead of only those of certain districts as he had announced days before.
The move prompted the National Education Union (NEU) to say that all elementary schools should remain closed for at least two weeks after the Christmas holidays.
NEU deputy general secretary Kevin Courtney said its members have “the legal right to refuse to work in unsafe conditions that are a danger to their health and to the health of their school communities and in general.”
The government’s handling of the situation has led the National Association of Teachers Directors (NAHT) union, together with the Association of School and University Leaders, to do preliminary steps in legal proceedings.
A director also calls for exams to be canceled in the summer.
Jules White, Principal of Tanbridge House School in Horsham, West Sussex, told Sky News: “I think it is going to be very difficult to continue the GCSE and A-Level exams in the way they are preparing.
“These are national tests, but many children are experiencing different levels of advantage or disadvantage, and I think the government has to take the bullet and acknowledge this.”
Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Army to help English schools with tests
A spokesman for the Department of Education said that the education of children “has always been a national priority” and classrooms should “reopen whenever possible” in the new period.
“Schools will continue to implement appropriate safety measures to help mitigate the risk of transmission,” they said.
“As we said, we will move to remote education as a last resort, with the involvement of public health officials, in areas where infection and pressures on the NHS are highest.”
