Tory MPS are calling to the Government to set out a ‘route map’ for the reopening of schools in England, amid increasing concerns about the impact of closures on student’s education.
Robert Halfon, the Chairman of the Education Select Committee has urged that a plan should be laid out in the Commons. The Government has responded, saying it is ‘too soon’ to say when schools will reopen to all students.
However, schools will not reopen until after the February half-term at the earliest. Conservative MP for Harlow, Mr Halfon tweeted that he has asked to table an urgent question in on the situation.
If the request is approved, an education minister must respond to his queries. He told the BBC Breakfast that there was ‘enormous uncertainty’, with newspaper reports saying that schools will not reopen before Easter. He has called for the Government to lay out ‘what the conditions need to be’ for students to return to schools.
He said: “The Government should come to parliament and explain to the public, to teachers, support staff, parents, who are incredibly worried. There are enormous pressures on parents at the moment, some of them are giving up their jobs or working part time, they are losing income because they have to stay at home to look after their children, they need to know what is going on.”
Mr Halfon suggested that the Government could consider stricter restrictions in other parts of the economy and society, in order to allow schools to open. Schools in England have been closed to all except vulnerable students and children of key workers since the national lockdown kicked off on the 5th of January.
Learners have been told they will be educated at home until at least half-term in mid-February. Gavin Williamson, Education Secretary has said schools will be given two weeks’ notice before they are allowed to reopen – which he would ‘certainly hope’ would happen prior to Easter.
Matt Hancock, Health Secretary echoed his comments in an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr on Sunday. He said: “I hope that schools go back after Easter”. He added that whilst the vaccine rollout was ‘Going fast.. We’ve got to make sure that we get the cases down and we’ve got to protect the country from new variants coming in from abroad.”
Ministers are desperate to avoid easing the lockdown restrictions, only to have to re-impose them – and are managing expectations around the timescale of loosening the COVID-19 lockdown.
Sir Graham Brady, the Chairman of the Conservative backbench 1922 Committee says, “Obviously schools should be back. If necessary, offer all teachers the vaccine. Certainly, once the most vulnerable are vaccinated, there has to be a roadmap and school children should be first.”
The first minister of Wales said on Friday that the ‘wholesale’ return of students to school after February half-term was ‘unlikely’. Mr Hancock also said that the UK had identified approximately 77 cases of the COVID-19 variant, which was first detected in South Africa – all linked to travellers coming into the UK, rather than community transmission.
Scientists have said there is a chance that the variant may harm the effectiveness for the current vaccines being rolled out. Ministers are set to meet this week to consider imposing stricter restrictions on people arriving from abroad, including the possibility of quarantining travellers in hotels.
In Scotland, a plan to deliver vaccination appointments to those aged between 70 to 79 in blue envelopes – so that they stand out within the post – has been pushed back. According to the Government’s coronavirus dashboard, 6,353,321 people in the UK in total have had an initial injection.
An additional 610 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were reported in the UK on Sunday – down from 671 deaths the previous Sunday. The amount of new positive cases fell for the fourth day in a row to 30,004 on Sunday – the lowest number since before Christmas. The death numbers are generally lower on Sunday and Monday because of weekend lags in reporting of the data.
