Responding to the Education Secretary’s announcement today on
arrangements for the spring term in England, Geoff Barton,
General Secretary of the Association of School and College
Leaders, said:
“The decision to further delay face-to-face teaching for
secondary pupils is unsurprising in the light of rising Covid
infection rates and the new strain of the virus, and seems
sensible in these extreme circumstances.
“Nobody wants to see children out of school but the difficult
balancing act between keeping education fully open and
suppressing transmission of the virus has clearly swung in the
direction of tackling the immediate public health crisis.
“However, we are concerned that the government is assuming that
it will be business as normal for the majority of primary schools
from the start of term.
“The government needs to urgently explain why it considers the
full resumption of primary education to be safe in most areas
despite alarming infection rates.
“While the new arrangements allow a little more time for mass
Covid testing to be rolled out in secondary schools and colleges,
we remain concerned about the huge logistical challenge of
recruiting and training large numbers of staff to run testing
centres.
“The support being provided by the government for this task is
not sufficient, and we will continue to discuss with ministers
and officials how this might be improved.
“Schools and colleges will be frustrated that the new
arrangements for the spring term have once again been
communicated late and after days of speculation.
“We appreciate this is a fast-developing situation but the
government has made a habit of chaotic eleventh hour
announcements which leave schools and colleges picking up the
pieces.”
