Letter sent today by the Joint General Secretaries of the
National Education Union
The Rt Hon
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
14 March 2020
Dear Prime Minister,
Every day we are getting increasing numbers of questions from
teachers and support staff asking why the Westminster Government
isn’t following the pattern of other countries in calling for
periods of school closure.
Those questions are increasingly asking why schools aren’t
closing if mass gatherings are to be suspended.
We all want to limit and delay the spread of the coronavirus and
we do think medical advice and expert scientific advice is
important in this regard.
But it is clear that such advice can have uncertainties, and that
it could be crafted to target a variety of measures.
We now see that you may take legal powers to force schools to
remain open even when heads and teachers think there is good
reason to close.
In those circumstances we, as the leaders of the largest
education union, believe that it is right for us to ask you for
fuller disclosure of the models you have looked at, and to
understand which measures you are targeting.
We do not have the medical expertise to know what the
transmissibility is between children and staff in close quarters
in classrooms - but your scientists will have made assumptions
about that, together with some view of the certainty of those
figures.
It is very important that we understand what the increased rate
of infection is for staff and parents if school remain open,
including obviously for those with underlying health conditions
themselves, or for those they care for.
We know you’ve expressed concerns about children not in school
being cared for by vulnerable elderly grandparents, or by NHS
staff who would then not be available for work. However, we would
suggest that parents and schools would be able to work together
to find solutions to that - and we would like to know if you have
any modelling of such societal responses.
Most of all we think that education staff deserve to have access
to modelling of the projected spread of the virus and the
projected number of fatalities in a wide variety of scenarios
including in scenarios where schools are closed for different
periods of time.
Teachers and other staff would work to help a broader societal
response to mitigate the effects of the virus. We know this is
especially important in a country where public services and the
NHS in particular have been run down for so long.
However it is vital that you share all of the potential models
you have with us if that societal response is to be as strong as
possible.
Yours sincerely
Dr Mary Bousted Kevin Courtney
Joint General Secretary Joint General Secretary
