Last night, Prime Minister Boris Johnson a month-long national lockdown, which will begin on Thursday and continue until December 2. But unlike during the first wave of the pandemic, schools, colleges and nurseries will remain open over the new four-week period. The spring and summer closure had a disastrous impact on students’ education, with millions missing out on vital learning and vital exams heavily delayed or even cancelled in many cases.
Mr Johnson said last night: “We cannot let this virus damage our children’s futures even more than it has already and I urge parents to keep taking their children to school and I’m extremely grateful to teachers across the country for their dedication in enabling schools to remain open.”
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson tweeted: “PM is absolutely right. We must protect the NHS and very important we keep schools and colleges open.
“As the Chief Medical Officer has said, schools are the safest and best places to be, not just for children’s education, but for their wellbeing.”
But teaching unions are already demanding schools be closed as part of England’s second lockdown, claiming they were a “major contributor to the spread of coronavirus”.
Kevin Courtney, General Secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said: “The Government should include all schools in proposals for an immediate national lockdown and as a minimum be preparing for school rotas at the end of that period.
“It is clear from ONS (Office for National Statistics) data that schools are an engine for virus transmission.
“It would be self-defeating for the government to impose a national lockdown, whilst ignoring the role of schools as a major contributor to the spread of the virus.
“This would be likely to lead to the need for even longer lockdowns in the future.”
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“It would be incomprehensible if universities were allowed to continue to do this after the outbreaks we have seen on campuses across the country this term.
“Ministers must tell universities to move all non-essential in-person teaching online as part of any national lockdown.”
This has sparked a backlash, with Chris McGovern, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, raging: “The children that are affected most by the lockdown are the less privileged.
“By calling for school closures, the NEU is effectively promoting social division, which is pretty disgraceful.”
Leading educationalist Professor Alan Smithers, of Buckingham University, said: “Closing schools in the first lockdown took an enormous toll on both the learning and mental health of children.
“Happily, children who catch the virus seem little affected by it so there is every reason to keep schools open.
“The NEU is showing an excess of caution and is getting the balance very wrong between keeping people safe and protecting young people’s futures.”
The Children’s Commissioner for England Anne Longfield welcomed the announcement from Mr Johnson that schools will not have to close, warning it would be a “disaster” for children’s well-being and education if they were forced to do so again.
She tweeted: “Suggestions that schools will stay open during a forthcoming lockdown are very welcome.
“We’ve always said that schools should be the last to shut & first to open.
“It would be a disaster for children’s well-being and education if they were to close.”
