Boris Johnson says schools are 'safe' and getting pupils back to the classroom is ‘right thing for everybody’
Making sure all children can go back to school in September is "the right thing for everybody," Boris Johnson has said.
The Prime Minister urged schools and teachers' unions to work together "to ensure that our schools are safe" from coronavirus in time for the start of the next academic year.
Speaking to reporters from a school in east London, Mr Johnson said: “It’s not right that kids should spend more time out of school. It’s much much better for their health and mental wellbeing - obviously their educational prospects if everybody comes back to school full-time in September.
“It’s our moral duty as a country to make sure that happens.”
The Prime Minister praised the work teachers' unions and schools had already done to make classrooms safe.
He added: “It’s very important that everybody works together to ensure that our schools are safe and they are – they are Covid secure – I have been very impressed by the work that the teachers have done, working with the unions, to make sure that all schools are safe to go back to in September.
“A lot of work being done over making sure that there’s social distancing, bubbling, staggered start times, all that kind of thing. But, basically, the plan is there – get everybody back in September, that’s the right thing for everybody.”
It comes after a children's expert said reopening schools was a "very minor" concern for coronavirus transmission.
Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a member of the Government’s Sage scientific advisory group, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday that “reopening schools is one of the least risky things we can do”.
But teachers, scientists, opposition politicians and the children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield have all called for improvements to testing before students go back to school en masse.
Ms Longfield told Times Radio on Sunday: "I think it needs to be as regular as it needs to be, to ensure that the infection is caught and identified as quickly as possible and then the tracking system can move on from that."
Meanwhile Sir Jeremy Farrar said the UK needs to " ramp up testing".
He wrote in a piece for the Observer on Sunday: "We are not where we need to be. We must improve contact tracing, so we’re identifying more cases and providing better, faster data locally.
“If we don’t, we may not be able to reopen schools without introducing new restrictions elsewhere. These are the trade-offs we face – if we do not act now.”
Shadow education secretary Kate Green called for greater support from ministers in making schools safe with extra resources and for them to boost the tracing of potential infections.
“I do think the Government could be doing more to support them (teachers) particularly, for example, making sure we’ve got a really robust test and trace system in place,” the Labour MP told Times Radio.
“It’s really, really important that we don’t write off a generation of Covid children – they need to be back in class the whole of our futures depend on this.”
National Education Union deputy general secretary Avis Gilmore called for ministers to “be clear” about support if a second wave of the virus strikes.
“Robust track, trace and test alongside health and safety checks in schools and colleges are necessary,” she said.
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