Evidence from Europe on the safety of reopening schools during the coronavirus pandemic is “mixed”, an expert said this morning.
Professor Paul Hunter, an epidemiologist at the University of East Anglia, also said that the evidence on how safe it is to open up schools to more pupils is currently “fairly uncertain and debatable”.
He was speaking on BBC Radio 4‘s Today programme, the morning after the government said it wants all primary pupils to be back in school before the summer.
Heads and teaching unions have expressed serious concerns at the government’s plans, which could mean pupils from Reception, Years 1 and Year 6 returning from 1 June.
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Professor Hunter said it was right to think about opening up schools and businesses, but added: ”...certainly on the evidence on schools, the evidence on the safety of doing that is still fairly uncertain and debatable and I think when we do that we need to do that very carefully, monitoring what’s happened”.
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“And I think what we need to do as well is look very closely at countries in Europe that are reopening schools at the moment to see how that has impacted on their epidemics. And there’s mixed messages at the moment coming from Europe about actually the safety of doing that.”
Denmark became the first European country to start reopening its schools last month, and is being followed by other countries including Germany and France.
Ahead of any school reopening in England next month, the Department for Education has published new safety measures, including halving the size of primary classes.
At a briefing last night, chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said there needed to be a “proper debate” about teachers’ safety as schools reopen.
Prime minister Boris Johnson assured a primary teacher at tonight’s briefing that the government would keep schools “Covid-secure”.
But headteachers warned that the plans were “wildly optimistic, to the point of being irresponsible”.
