Tory u-turn on primary schools is right – shame on those who supported early return
Social distancing? If this shot was taken after primary classes returned from lockdown, do you think these kids are at least two metres apart – or the teacher and child in the background?
The Tory government has shelved its plan to fully reopen primary schools before the summer holidays after admitting it is impractical.
Schools are unable to accommodate all their pupils while classes are limited to just 15 pupils – half normal size. Where would the other half go?
It would be impossible to police all the pupils, ensuring that social distancing rules were followed. Have you ever had to spend all day reminding a five-year-old not to do something they really want to do?
And then there’s the fact that pupils simply aren’t turning up. When schools reopened 10 days ago, predictions were that only half of Reception/Year 1 and Year 6 pupils would attend, with parents keeping the rest away due to fears of Covid-19 contagion.
In fact, only half of the predicted numbers actually turned up – a quarter of the expected intake.
And still social distancing rules aren’t being followed, if the image accompanying the BBC’s report (a version of which appears above) is indicative.
Most disappointing for This Writer has been the response of the Labour Party to the school reopening plan. Instead of standing up for parents and children across the UK, Red Tory Keir Starmer supported Gavin Williamson and Boris Johnson.
No amount of backtracking by Rebecca Long-Bailey can change that.
Labour should have listened to parents, teachers, and the education unions – all of whom spent weeks warning that the plan was nonsense – but didn’t.
I like the comment by ‘Molly’ in the BBC article: “”Until it is safe for Parliament to sit next to each other and until it’s ‘safe’ to cuddle your own blood mother, then how is it deemed safe to mix your children with numerous other households?”
It is a shambles that the Tory government owns – we must not forget that.
But Labour has lost a lot of confidence by supporting it.
Source: Coronavirus: All primary pupils no longer going back to school – BBC News
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