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High schools will be closed for at least the first week of the quarter, except for 11- and 13-year-olds, but elementary schools will be open as usual starting Monday, Michael Gove said today.
Cabinet Office Minister Gove has said the government wants schools to be staggered reopened in England from January 4, meaning that most children over the age of 11 will receive instruction remotely during at least the first week.
It means the government has given in to pressure from teachers and unions who demanded that millions of children learn online after the Christmas holidays to allow coronavirus tests to be done and teachers to be vaccinated.
All elementary schools will be open, while only years 11 and 13 and the children of key workers will attend secondary schools starting Monday. Some Whitehall sources have claimed that Level 4 students can be home until mid-February.
“ We always keep things under review, but teachers and principals have been working incredibly hard over the Christmas period since the schools were disbanded to prepare for a new testing regimen, community testing, to make sure the children and everyone we are safer, ” Gove told Sky News. “We keep things under review, but that’s the plan,” he added.
Pressure has increased on Boris Johnson from within his own party to keep students in school at the start of the new term.
One Conservative supporter told the Telegraph: “The opinion of the majority of Conservative MPs is that schools should remain open. It’s the healthcare people who are saying, ‘My God, the hospitals will be full.’
‘We know that open schools increase the R rate. The question is, is it a price that we are willing to pay and, in my opinion, it should be. Frankly, children are not harmed, so why the hell should we punish them?
Conservative MP Robert Halfon, chair of the education select committee, said: “The government has to do everything possible not to close schools.” He said that closing schools ran the risk of “damaging the life chances of our next generation.”
Michael Gove confirmed today that only elementary schools are expected to open from Monday
Scientists have warned that the new coronavirus mutation appears to be spreading rapidly among young people, and schools had high infection rates before the Christmas holidays.
But several senior conservatives have told the prime minister that keeping all schools open should be his priority, even if this increases the ‘R’ infection rate.
Unions have called for all schools to be closed for the first two weeks to allow coronavirus tests to be done and teachers to be vaccinated.
Scientists say open schools are likely to keep the ‘R’ rate at 1 or more.
Sir Jeremy Farrar, a member of the Government’s Emergency Scientific Advisory Group, has said the arguments for reopening schools in January were “very well balanced.”
“I think the next few weeks until January are going to be extremely difficult across the country,” Sir Jeremy, director of the Wellcome Trust, told BBC Radio 4 Today.
“Certainly my own opinion is that opening schools is a top priority. But society, and eventually this is a political decision, will have to balance keeping schools open, if possible, with closing other parts of society.
‘It’s going to be an exchange between one or the other. You can’t have it all. You cannot have the opening of the whole society, the opening of schools and higher education and universities, and keep R below 1 with this variant.
“I think there are some very, very difficult decisions. We’re going to see these continuing pressures for at least the next two to three months. ‘
Yesterday, the conservative candidate for mayor of London, Shaun Bailey, said that the government should delay the return of students for fifteen days to have a “chance to fight the virus.”
Conservative MPs have told Boris Johnson that school closings risked ‘hurting the life chances of our next generation’
Teacher unions have already called for online teaching to resume for at least two weeks and for teachers to be vaccinated before returning to classrooms. All lessons were due to restart on January 4, but Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced plans for a staggered return of some high school students.
Under current plans, all elementary schools will return normally on January 4, along with GCSE and A-level students and those in vocational courses.
Williamson warned his allies that he faces a “huge battle” to keep children in high school.
Downing Street officials and the Department of Education will hold talks today.
Higher education leaders fear that students have already missed months of schooling and young people who take exams this year are at risk of being unfairly penalized.
But Bailey, then, who has claimed he has Johnson’s personal endorsement as a mayoral candidate, said schools were one of the main points of transmission for the virus.
He added: ‘We must make the most of the Christmas holidays to defeat Covid-19 where we can.
“I propose a two-week circuit breaker for the schools. During this time we can keep our children from mixing and have our teachers evaluated.
“This gives us an opportunity to fight the virus without causing maximum disruption.”
Up to 11 million lateral flow tests will be made available for schools and universities starting January 4, providing a test capacity of up to 5.5 million.
The National Education Union urged the government to go further and said it wanted all children to be tested before returning.
He said all lessons must take place online for two weeks while tests are set up and teachers get vaccinated.
Former Defense Minister Tobias Ellwood said troops must be deployed to conduct tests and keep schools open. He said the soldiers had successfully helped test carriers queuing in Dover to clear the backlog of trucks waiting to cross the Channel.
A study of massive tests in schools in England revealed that one in 79 people tested positive in November, not knowing they were infected.
Data from the Office for National Statistics showed that 1.24% of students and 1.29% of staff entered because they did not know they had the virus.
Infection rates were highest in secondary schools, and tests in the hardest-hit areas of the country found that about one in 67 tested positive.
A government spokesman said the rapid tests would help keep high schools open, while reducing the risk of transmission in communities.
They said: ‘We want all students to come back in January as school is the best place for their development and mental health. But, as the Prime Minister has said, it is right that we follow the path of the pandemic and keep our approach under constant review.
