Britain’s biggest teaching union has accused the prime minister of “not learning from his past mistakes” following his announcement that schools will reopen on 8 March.
The NEU says Covid cases are currently three times higher than when schools reopened last September and says the “risk is greatly elevated” by new variants of Covid.
Mary Bousted, NEU joint general secretary, said that, in the reopening plans, there were no “Nightingale classrooms” - extra space to allow for smaller classes - or Public Health England testing that heads could rely upon to give more accurate results.
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She said: ”A ‘big bang’ school reopening brings 10 million people back into crowded buildings with no social distancing and inadequate ventilation.
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“The wearing of face masks by pupils and staff in secondary school lessons is a welcome measure, but it is not, on its own, enough.
“The government has had two months to put extra mitigations in place to stop the growth in infection in schools that was seen from September to December. Where are the ventilation units for classrooms? Where are the Nightingale classrooms? Where is the PHE testing which school leaders could rely upon to give more accurate results?”
This afternoon in the House of Commons, prime minister Boris Johnson said pupils and students in all schools and further education settings could “safely return” to face-to-face teaching on 8 March, and that there would be twice-weekly Covid testing of secondary school and college students.
But Dr Bousted said: “Boris Johnson has, despite all his words of caution, failed to learn the lessons of his previous mistakes.
“Whilst cases of Covid infection are falling, along with hospitalisation rates, it remains the case, unfortunately, that cases are three times higher now than when schools reopened last September.
“This fact, alone, should have induced caution rather than, in the words of [vaccines minister] Nadhim Zahawi, an ‘ambitious’ school return which runs the risk of schools, once again, becoming, in the prime minister’s words on 4 January, a ‘vector of transmission’ into the community. This risk is greatly elevated because of the new variants of Covid, which are significantly more transmissive.
“Why has the English government not taken the same route as Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland whose cautious, phased approach to school opening will enable their governments to assess the impact a return to the classroom will have on the R [Covid-19 reproduction] rate and to make necessary adjustments to their plans.“
