NEU comment on Testing in Schools
Commenting on the announcement by during today’s Downing Street briefing, Kevin
Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education
Union, said:
“Finally, the Government has woken up to the fact that schools
are a major centre of transmission for Covid. This has been
glaringly obvious for weeks. Rolling out testing in these two
areas is a start, but the Prime Minister needs to urgently
address those other parts of the country where infection rates
remain high.
“Parents will welcome this news, but they will at the same time
recognise the Government's pattern of behaviour when it comes to
schools. This follows hot on the heels of their ludicrous
last-minute suggestion that 18 December should become an Inset
day, demonstrating a quite staggering disconnect between
ministers and the lived experience of schools.
“Case counts would not be so extreme in schools if Government had
agreed to the early closing of schools and a take-up in online
learning ahead of Christmas, and if they had followed our
suggestions about secondary schools moving to rota operation. The
decision to move all secondary teaching online in Wales is a much
more robust response to an increasingly worrying situation.
“The highest rates of infection amongst school age children have
shifted from the North to London and surrounding areas, and the
current rate of coronavirus infection amongst 10 to 14 years old
in some areas is clearly awful. Runnymede has the highest rate at
1,169 per 100,000 people, but the amount by which the rate is
accelerating is also alarming. In Runnymede the rate of infection
has increased by 27 times since the start of the lockdown.
“Our primary members will also be concerned that they have not
been included in the roll out, when absence rates have been
rising amongst that age group throughout autumn term. Like school
leaders across the country, they will not appreciate yet another
announcement which raises more questions than it answers.”
ASCL comment on testing of pupils in worst-hit Covid
areas
Commenting on plans for Covid testing of secondary school-aged
children in parts of London, Essex, and Kent, Geoff Barton,
General Secretary of the Association of School and College
Leaders, said:
“We have to question why the plan is to mass test children, and
there is apparently no consideration of moving to remote learning
for the last week of term.
“The number of infections in these areas is very similar to the
situation in parts of Wales, where the government there has
decided to move to remote learning in secondary schools and
colleges from Monday.
“We really do hope that this is not another sign of the
government in Westminster ploughing ahead with its insistence
that schools should remain fully open in England come what may.
“If there is an immediate concern over infection rates, can we
really afford the delay involved in rolling out mass testing and
obtaining results?”
