Responding to the Secretary of State for Education’s speech in
the House of Commons today, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of
school leaders’ union NAHT, said:
“Schools were told at 8pm on Monday night that they would to
switch to remote learning by 9am the next day and to organise
provision for vulnerable and key worker pupils. They have spent
the last 48 hours working tirelessly to put plans in place,
despite the fact that on Sunday the PM was saying that schools
would remain open.
“Meanwhile pupils up and down the country are still awaiting the
internet devices that were promised last summer. We’re into the
ninth month of the pandemic and many schools and pupils are still
waiting for their allocation to come through. And devices are
only being made available for older primary pupils, not those in
key stage 1 at all. The government really has really let young
people down miserably on this one.
“It is therefore nothing short of disgraceful that the government
should choose today to start threatening schools about the
quality of their remote learning offer. Schools are keeping going
in the most extreme circumstances right now – support is needed
to overcome the challenges they face, not threat or sanction.
“The profession has predicted all the difficulties the government
has failed to navigate schools through. I therefore appeal again
to government to work alongside the profession constructively in
place of threats and empty words. The announcements today do
nothing to redress the damage the government has caused to
children’s education.”
