Teaching union slams Government’s ‘undeliverable’ plans for mass Covid-19 testing in schools from January as senior Tory MP warns decision to stagger return of pupils will mean ‘more lost learning’ and will ‘sow confusion’
- Government announced pupils’ return to secondary schools will be staggered
- Staggered return in January to give schools time to set up mass Covid testing
- But teaching union said mass testing roll-out ‘undeliverable’ in such short time
- Senior Tory MP Robert Halfon said staggered return of pupils will ‘sow confusion’
A teaching union has slammed the Government’s ‘undeliverable’ plans to roll-out mass coronavirus testing to secondary schools and colleges in January amid a rising backlash at the decision to stagger the return of pupils.
Ministers said the return of most students to classrooms next month will be delayed to allow schools to put in place a mass testing regime, with most children starting the year with online learning.
But the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said the ‘last minute’ announcement of the testing proposals before the Christmas break mean it will not be possible to recruit and train the people needed to carry out the checks.
The union said it was ‘beyond belief’ that the testing requirement has been imposed on schools ‘in such a cack-handed manner’.
Meanwhile, Robert Halfon, the Tory chairman of the Education Select Committee, has blasted the staggered return of pupils as he said it will result in ‘more lost learning’ and will ‘sow confusion’.
The Government announced this week that pupils’ return to secondary schools and colleges will be staggered in January to allow for the roll-out of a mass coronavirus testing programme
But unions have slammed the testing plans as ‘undeliverable’ while senior Tory MP Robert Halfon said the staggered return will ‘sow confusion’
The Government has announced that secondary school and college pupils’ return to class in England will be staggered in the first week of January to help headteachers roll-out mass testing of students.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb said the tests will be administered by volunteers and agency staff, rather than teachers, and further details on how it will work will be published next week – when most schools are closed for Christmas.
The plans to start lessons online for secondary school and college students – apart from exam-year pupils, key workers’ children and vulnerable youngsters – were announced on the final day of term for many schools.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: ‘The plans outlined at the last minute by the Government for mass testing in schools and colleges from the start of the spring term are undeliverable in that timescale, and it is beyond belief that they were landed on school and college leaders in such a cack-handed manner.
‘It is not possible to recruit and train all the people needed to carry out tests, and put in place the processes that would be necessary, over the Christmas period, and it is extremely regrettable that the Government has given the public an expectation that this will happen.’
The decision to stagger the return of pupils means teachers will now have to develop online lesson plans over the Christmas break.
Experts have warned online learning during the coronavirus crisis has had a significant impact on children’s development and there are growing concerns over extending the provisions further.
Mr Halfon tweeted: ‘Around 5 million pupils now miss a week+ school in Jan. This is after millions of children lost months of learning during 1st lockdown.
‘This wrongheaded decision by [the Department for Education] for Secondary staggered starts = more lost learning, sows confusion & is logistically challenging.’
He added: ‘Above all it hurts left-behind pupils who need to be in school as we know remote learning is pretty varied. As Chief Inspector [of Ofsted] has said, ‘one day of national school closure works out at about 40,000 child years of education in total’.’
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, warned that schools will ‘struggle to have testing ready for the start of term’ if details on how it will work are not released until after Christmas.
Mr Gibb told BBC Breakfast the Government will release ‘very detailed guidance’ about what needs to be in place for testing next week, and acknowledged there will be ‘work to do’ over the next fortnight.
He added: ‘The logistics for carrying out those tests will be volunteers and agency workers so it won’t be teachers that will be carrying out the tests.’
Teaching unions have also criticised the Government’s decision not to require volunteers to have background checks before administering tests to children.
Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of teaching union NASUWT, said: ‘Aside from the issue of how these volunteers are even going to be recruited, the idea that they will not be required to undertake DBS checks when they will be on school premises working with children is outrageous.’
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson made the announcement yesterday that the majority of secondary school and college pupils will start the term online and all face-to-face lessons will resume on January 11.