School leaders, teachers and parents need to be given “greater clarity” on the reopening of schools amid a rise in Covid-19 cases, a teachers’ union has said.
Boris Johnson previously promised that all pupils at both primary and secondary schools in England would return in September, following months of closures for most students.
But after the prime minister announced a slowing down in easing the lockdown, Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said the government will need to provide “clarification” to schools.
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He told The Observer: “In light of recent changes to plans for relaxing lockdown measures, the government needs to provide greater clarity to school leaders, teachers and parents about what this will mean for the reopening of schools in September.”
A warning from chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty that the country is “near the limit” for opening up society, while guarding against a second wave of the coronavirus, will prompt questions for parents as well as teachers, Mr Roach told the newspaper.
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“If schools are to reopen safely, the government will need to give them clarification about what they need to do to take account of the latest scientific evidence and advice, as well as sufficient time to review and, if necessary, adjust their reopening plans,” he added.
A Department of Education spokesperson said: “We have set out the controls schools should use, including cleaning and hygiene measures, to substantially reduce the risk of transmission of the virus when they open to all children from September.
“This does not include the wearing of face coverings as we believe the system of controls laid out adequately reduced the risk of transmission to both staff and students.”
Meanwhile, Dr Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, told The Observer that although risks to children and teachers are likely to be low, this transmission would increase infection rates.
“Would reopening schools increase the spread of Covid-19 in the population? Yes. I think it would very probably do that,” he said.
The warning comes after minutes released by the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) committee on Friday showed that school reopening has been discussed several times by the expert panel.
On 23 June, the group said there “may be a need to change measures at the end of the summer in order to be able to keep R [the reproduction rate for Covid-19] below 1 whilst proceeding with the planned reopening of schools”.
A meeting on 9 July highlighted that the spread from children to adults “appears to be low” and outbreaks in schools “are extensions of community outbreaks and comprise small numbers, rather than indicating that schools are high-risk settings”.
However, scientists warned it is “important to ensure that there will be enough ‘room’ in terms of the epidemic to open schools in September”.
