Schools appear more in touch with the risks of the PM’s Christmas plans than the ministers hectoring them
This week is not the first time that clarity has been lacking from the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. But it is alarming that, less than a fortnight before Christmas, the messages from ministers should be so mixed. The decision announced on Monday by the health secretary, Matt Hancock, to place London, along with parts of Essex and Hertfordshire, under tier 3 restrictions from Wednesday, follows logically enough from data showing that hospital admissions in England are up by 13%. Worryingly, Mr Hancock said that rising case numbers in the south could be linked to the discovery of a new variant of Covid-19. But while decision-making based on the latest scientific evidence must, of course, be welcomed, this latest tightening of restrictions does not sit well with the attitude taken by ministers to English schools over recent days, or to the promises made to the public with regard to Christmas.
Just last week the schools minister, Nick Gibb, wrote to the headteacher of a school in Ware, Hertfordshire, warning that the government could use its powers under the Coronavirus Act to prevent schools such as his from carrying out plans to send most pupils home before the end of term and switch to remote learning. In a similar vein, suggestions from unions that schools might operate remotely at the start of next term, in order to decrease the chances that contacts over the festive period could lead to a spike in infections, were rebuffed.
