Teaching union demands secondary schools must only open on a week on, week off system after lockdown until UK has ‘fit for purpose’ Test and Trace system
- National Education Union has already pleaded for schools to close in lockdown
- Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham agrees that schools should shut
- However, PHE says children are most likely to catch Covid-19 in their homes
The UK’s biggest teacher union has demanded that secondary schools only open on a week-on, week-off system after lockdown.
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU) has said the new rotas should be used until the country has a ‘fit for purpose’ Test and Trace system.
The union has already pleaded for schools to close during lockdown to no avail.
Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, agreed that schools should close so the ‘full benefits’ of a national lockdown will be seen.
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU) has said the new rotas should be used until the country has a ‘fit for purpose’ Test and Trace system (stock picture)
He told Sky News: ‘If we’re going to do this, let’s do it properly and get cases right down before January – traditionally the most difficult month in the NHS.
‘Of course it’s difficult closing schools, but I think schools will be less disrupted if we get this real circuit break. To be honest, it’s not a proper circuit break unless we really do close everything.’
The NEU is gunning for secondary school students to be partially taught at home after lockdown.
Its analysis of the latest data from the Office of National Statistics claimed that coronavirus rates were the one of the highest in the country in secondary school students.
The union has already pleaded for schools to close during lockdown to no avail. Stock picture
Mr Courtney told The Telegraph: ‘The rota system would run for as long as necessary, certainly until we have a fit-for-purpose test, trace and isolate system,” Mr Courtney said.
‘The need for rotas will lessen when safety measures are significantly improved, and when the R rate has reduced to below one.’
However, Public Health England still claims that children are most likely to become infected with Covid-19 in their homes.
Andy Burnham (pictured), mayor of Greater Manchester, agreed that schools should close so the ‘full benefits’ of a national lockdown will be seen
The organisation’s deputy director, Dr Susan Hopkins, told Times Radio Breakfast: ‘The majority of children have infection that’s related to infection in their households, which is clearly the most likely place that children will get infected.
‘We have also agreed that we want our children to be in education, that we think that the damage done from a year of children’s education lost is too high for us to accept as a society.’
The Government has announced that millions of quick and cheap Covid-19 tests will be distributed across the country to tell students if they are infectious in just 10 to 15 minutes.