Labour demands Government ‘act now’ to protect children’s education
@UKLabour is demanding the Government ‘act now’ to protect children’s education and prevent the chaos seen last January when children returned to school for one day before being sent home again.
Labour is calling on Ministers to deliver a Christmas vaccines guarantee so all 12 – 15-year-olds can get vaccinated during the holidays and use the break to get ventilation systems and testing support into schools to ensure children’s smooth return to classrooms for the new term.
Speaking in an urgent question in Parliament, Shadow Schools Minister Stephen Morgan MP will urge Ministers to learn from the last 20 months and prioritise children’s education by getting ventilation and vaccinations in place, saying:
“Ministers must stop treating children as an afterthought, and act now to avoid chaos next term.”
Morgan will challenge the Education Secretary to adopt Labour’s calls for:
- a clear, targeted communications campaign to parents on the benefits of vaccination
- access to pop-up and walk-in clinics
- the mobilisation of volunteers and retired clinicians
Latest data published this week shows 235,000 children were out of school due to Covid on 9 December with Covid infections rising particularly among primary age pupils.
Stephen Morgan MP, Labour’s Shadow Schools Minister, said:
“Children have been in and out of school facing ongoing disruption to education and wellbeing again this term. This cannot continue.
“The Government has continuously failed to plan ahead, but must act now and use the Christmas holidays to prevent the chaos seen last January.
“Labour is calling on Ministers to deliver a Christmas vaccine guarantee to ensure all 12 – 15-year-olds can get a jab during the holidays to keep kids learning next term. This must be delivered alongside practical ventilation measures in all schools, so teachers are not forced to open windows this winter.”
Commenting on the shadow schools minister Stephen Morgan’s call for the Government to ‘act now’ to prevent chaos for schools in the new year, Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“Labour is absolutely right to call upon the Government to ‘act now’ so we can avoid a repeat of the chaos that schools had to endure at the start of 2021.
“Rolling out vaccinations to as many eligible children as possible in the next couple of weeks, as well as ensuring that all adults can access their booster, will help minimise disruption to children’s education, as will a focus on testing and ventilation.
“The Government has already squandered so many opportunities to improve ventilation in schools and right now that task is more urgent than ever.”
Commenting as the Prime Minister’s official spokesman warned parents not to keep their children out of school for fear of catching Covid before Christmas, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:
“We agree that children should be in school and not missing out on education. But if parents feel nervous about sending their children in to classrooms due to the soaring levels of Covid, that is an indication that the government needs to do more to control the spread of the virus.
“The government can’t simply say that parents must send their children to school without taking the necessary action to reassure them that it is safe for them to do so.”
Full text of Stephen Morgan’s statement in Parliament:
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
May I first take this opportunity to thank school staff, governors, parents and pupils across the country for their dedication and hard work during a year of unrivalled difficulties. But the Government’s complacency means we are now in a race against time to protect children’s health and education as the Omicron variant spreads.
Yesterday’s absence figures show 235,000 children are now out of school due to Covid, up 13 per cent in the last fortnight. An average of 175,500 children have been out of school every day this term. This ongoing disruption to education comes on top of the average of 115 days of in-person school that pupils missed between March 2020 and July 2021.
Mr Speaker, the Government has serious questions to answer about why further steps have not been taken to reduce the spread of covid amongst pupils. We know vaccination and ventilation are vital to these efforts. But Ministers are falling short on both.
Sage first highlighted the importance of ventilation in schools in May 2020, but 19 months on the Government has failed to act on their advice. Mr Speaker, this is literally a problem the Government could have fixed while the sun was shining. Instead, their failure to get ventilation measures in place is pushing schools to open windows despite plummeting temperatures, while school energy bills skyrocket.
Therefore, will the Minister immediately publish interim findings of the Bradford pilot of air purifiers and work with all schools to implement recommendations from this? On vaccinations, nationally we find less than half of 12 – 15-year-olds have had a vaccine.
Ministers missed their own target to offer everyone in that age group a jab by October, and have not set a new one. Perhaps most concerningly, the weekly number of jabs administered to 12 – 15-year-olds has dropped 80 per cent since half term.
Will the Minister commit to deliver a vaccine guarantee so all young people can get their jab by the end of the Christmas holidays?
Will he also set out what steps he will take to rapidly ramp up the rollout?
Will he adopt Labour’s calls for:
- A clear, targeted communications campaign to parents on the benefits of vaccination?
- Access to pop-up and walk-in clinics?
- The mobilisation of volunteers and retired clinicians?
Mr Speaker, staff, children and parents are now into their third school year of disruption. Time and again, this government’s failure to plan ahead has left children bearing the brunt of the pandemic.
Ministers must stop treating them as an afterthought, and act now to avoid chaos next term.
Stephen Morgan MP, Labour’s Shadow Schools Minister
236,000 pupils did not attend school for Covid related reasons on December 9th
14th Dec 2021: The Department for Education (@EducationGovUK) has published new data on attendance in education and early years settings.
The figures show that 236,000 pupils in state-funded schools in England did not attend school for Covid related reasons on 9 December, up from 208,000 on 25 November.
Stephen Morgan MP, Labour’s Shadow Schools Minister, said:
“Hundreds of thousands of children are facing continued disruption to their education because of the Conservatives’ failure to prioritise schoolchildren.
“The Government should have had a proper plan in place to stop a third year of Covid chaos in schools but their last-minute approach is leaving children bearing the brunt of the pandemic once again. This cannot continue.
“Labour is calling on Ministers to deliver a Christmas vaccine guarantee to ensure all 12 – 15 year olds can get a jab during the holidays to keep kids learning next term. This must be delivered alongside practical ventilation measures in all schools, so teachers are not forced to open windows this winter.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:
“This latest increase in Covid-related absences comes as no real surprise given the current situation nationally. However, our concern is that this data is already out of date and actually underestimates the scale of the issue schools are currently dealing with.
“Over the last few days we have heard from our members that there has been a significant jump in Covid cases in schools, amongst both staff and pupils, as the new variant has started to spread. Some have told us that this has been the hardest term of the whole pandemic.
“The situation is not being helped by schools sometimes receiving contradictory advice from central government and local public health teams. Now more than ever schools need clear and consistent advice from central and local government so that they can respond appropriately where there are cases in their communities.
“Everyone is concerned about how this will play out over the next few weeks and the implications for January. No-one wants to see the sort of disruption to education that we experienced last winter. However, we are already seeing signs that schools are coming under increasing pressure.
“The government needs to think very carefully about the mitigations it needs to take to keep schools open next term. Doing nothing is not a plausible or realistic option.
“It is essential that the government does everything in its power now to reduce the spread of Covid in schools. That should include reviewing mitigation measures that could be reintroduced whilst transmission rates are high.
“The government also needs to remove unnecessary burdens like inspection, pointless assessment exercises and other bureaucratic procedures that feed the Westminster machine but do little to support schools at this difficult time.”
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:
“It’s no surprise that this set of statistics shows a further increase in pupil and teacher absence because of Covid-19. The situation has clearly been deteriorating through the course of this half term with many schools and colleges experiencing huge disruption. The Omicron variant threatens to unleash even more difficulties. The forthcoming Christmas holidays will at least provide a firebreak but there can be little doubt that the spring term will be challenging.
“Schools and colleges have worked immensely hard throughout the course of this very tough term, and throughout the entirety of the pandemic, to keep education going as best they can in these turbulent circumstances. But the unrelenting pressure has been absolutely brutal. Education staff deserve huge credit for everything they have done and are doing.
“We would appeal to the government to back them up with more support, particularly in terms of Covid testing, ventilation, and more assistance with the financial cost of supply cover, and to communicate any new plans and measures in connection with the Omicron variant promptly and clearly.”
Natalie Perera, Chief Executive of the Education Policy Institute (EPI), said:
“Today’s attendance figures show that the disruption to education caused by Covid is far from over.
“What these figures won’t show is the highly localised picture and the huge differences from school-to-school. Some schools will have been able to continue as normal, while others will have already switched to remote learning.
“The government will need to keep its policies on school Covid management under constant review as we learn more about this variant. It must issue clear advice to school leaders and avoid the widespread confusion that we saw this time last year. Avoiding another schools lockdown must remain the priority.
“Another wave of prolonged disruption to education in the new year would mean that the government would need to consider additional financial support to help schools avoid further unmitigated learning losses.
“Our research has shown that by summer 2021 pupil learning losses were still substantial, particularly for those from poorer backgrounds and those in parts of the North of England and the Midlands. The government must do all it can to prevent pupils from falling behind with their learning again.”
Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“The Prime Minister’s end of term report makes for sorry reading. Boris Johnson has not kept his eye on the ball, and his lack of action in ensuring schools have measures in place to keep on top of ever-increasing Covid infection rates is shocking. Today’s data show that 236,000 pupils were absent from school on 9 December for Covid-19 related reasons, around one in 35 pupils.
“The NEU has been calling for a fit for purpose Plan B for schools, one that increases safety mitigations for schools and colleges and would ensure continuity of education and a control on case counts. It emphasises face coverings, isolation, ventilation, staggered break times, one-way routes around the school site, and guidance on gatherings and access to vaccines for staff. (1)
“How we approach the new year is in the gift of the Prime Minister. He has got us to this place and must not simply rely on the school holiday to halt the rise of Covid in schools. Boris Johnson must bring forward a plan to keep schools and colleges safe and to keep education going. He can start by looking at the NEU’s.”
Last week, the NEU set out its Plan B to stop the disruption of education:
Responses