Commenting on calls by the Mayor of London to move London schools
to online learning this week, and a move to do so by Greenwich
Council, Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National
Education Union, said:
“The National Education Union is pleased that has written
to the Prime Minister pointing out that the biggest spread of the
virus is within education settings and calling on the Government
to ask schools to close early for Christmas and re-open later and
to provide extra resources for online learning.
“Sadiq Khan is a politician who is reading the science and
standing up for education and protecting communities. He also
calls for secondary pupils to have regular asymptomatic testing
to keep down transmission in schools. These would be important
steps forward.
“We strongly welcome the decision by Greenwich Council to urge
all of its schools to close from Monday evening, to all except
vulnerable children and the children of key workers. We urge
other councils to take the same decision.
“The Government should have been planning for this weeks ago.
They have now started to recognise the blindingly obvious fact
that transmission is happening in schools and that this can
spread to families. But the Government now needs to act. Much
more is needed to control the virus in schools and to protect
communities.”
