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Coronavirus Catch Up: Government 'Making It Up' On Schools Reopening, Union Leader Claims
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The government is “making it up as it goes along” on the approach to reopening schools, and education union leader has sad a day before some pupils return to classes.
The latest figures from the Department of Health and Social Care state that 38,376 people have now died in the UK after contracting Covid-19, and 272,826 people have tested positive.
Here’s the latest.
Government ‘making it up as it goes along’ on schools, says teaching union
The government revised its plans to reopen schools 41 times since May 12 because of errors in judgment, an education union leader has claimed.
Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), has added to calls for ministers to rethink the reopening of schools on Monday.
Ministers have said their five key tests required for the easing of lockdown have been met – and schools will admit more pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 from Monday.
The prerequisites for lockdown easing were: ensuring the NHS can cope; a “sustained and consistent” fall in the daily death rate; the rate of infection decreasing to “manageable levels”; ensuring testing and PPE supplies can meet future demand; and ensuring any future adjustments would not risk a peak that could “overwhelm” the NHS.
Bousted argued the five tests have not been met, and she pointed out that members of Sage, the government’s scientific advisory body, including Professor Peter Horby, have voiced the same opinion.
Prof Horby, chair of the New Emergency Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG), along with fellow Sage scientists Sir Jeremy Farrar and Professor John Edmunds, said ministers are taking a risk by easing lockdown restrictions on Monday.
Speaking on the Sophy Ridge show on Sky News on Sunday, Bousted said children should instead return to school on June 15 when the infection rate should be lower.
She said:...
