A senior Conservative MP has branded the government’s schools policy during the pandemic as a “huge shambles” after the snap decision to close schools yesterday with the introduction of a national lockdown.
Robert Halfon, chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, added that he felt “enormously sorry” for parents, pupils and teachers “for what has gone on”.
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Asked today on BBC Radio 4‘s Woman’s Hour why the government had gone from insisting schools would open on Sunday evening to closing them by Monday night, Mr Halfon said: “I wish I knew the answer to that question and I don’t. In fact, on the weekend I was getting messages from ministers...to say schools were safe, that transmission rates were pretty marginal even when schools were closed, so that’s why they could remain open.
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“I was getting messages saying that teachers were at no greater risk than any other profession...I do not understand it. I wanted schools to open as much as possible - I think it’s been a huge shambles.
“This has got to stop, the government has got to offer a consistent policy that doesn’t change every couple of days, let alone weeks,” he added.
Mr Halfon, a former skills minister, said that with schools switching to online learning, there were still hundreds of thousands of children on the “wrong side of the digital divide”, and that “the issue is not just about children having laptops and even an internet connection, the issue is what is going to happen to them at home and they have to open those laptops they have to have parents supporting them - the parents may have to go to work”.
Asked whether he understood why parents might have lost faith in his party, Mr Halfon said: “As someone in Parliament, I feel enormously sorry for parents, teachers and support staff for what has gone on.
“I’ve been campaigning for schools to be open because I worry about the risks to mental health, loss of learning, wellbeing, and also safeguarding hazards - because we know that children at home sometimes are subject to domestic abuse, online harms and perhaps joining county line gangs.”
Mr Halfon did not answer whether he himself had lost faith in his party, but said: “I hope very much that they will sort it out and make sure that whatever happens that schools are open for children, teachers are prioritised for vaccination and we have a proper route map for education.”
