Commenting on the Department for Education’s decision to pause
testing in schools and colleges, Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General
Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“This is yet another example of the Government's dispiriting
habit of refusing to admit error, even when it u-turns.
Parents, staff and pupils will be confused by this policy
reversal.
“The roll out of this testing system was a major part of the
Department for Education's message to schools and colleges in the
days before Christmas, giving them scarcely any notice to
prepare. In the event, schools and colleges were closed - again
at the eleventh hour, and after school leaders had given up time
over the break to prepare a testing programme, which is now in
tatters.
“We have been pressing for the scientific basis on which the roll
out of lateral flow testing in schools was made, and this request
has been ignored.
"The NEU has argued that regular testing of staff, even if the
tests are far from perfect, will help pick up some asymptomatic
cases that would otherwise go unnoticed. However, our advice has
been that permitting close contacts of positive cases to remain
in school as an alternative to self-isolation was a reckless
policy, which could help spread the virus and we have advised
members to self-isolate if they are a contact of a positive case
picked up by the school testing system.
"We are relieved that the Government now accepts that it was
wrong to introduce testing in this way, but this is not a
sustainable method for policy to be developed. We need proper
engagement with the profession, rather than rushed policy, to
ensure that when we do emerge from lockdown there are robust
measures in place to ensure Covid-security."
