The six week summer holiday should be cut short so that teachers can return early to prepare for children’s classroom restart in September, five former education ministers have said.
The proposals drawn up by the former Labour schools minister Lord Adonis would also see church halls and Portakabins commandeered to provide more space for socially distant lessons and recently retired and trainee teachers drafted in to support staff who are shielding or off sick with Covid-19.
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A national director of school operations would oversee the effort to get schools reopened safely for all pupils in September, The Sunday Times reported.
Lord Adonis said the Government would need to set out new social distancing rules to allow the current limit of 15 pupils to be expanded back to 30.
Widespread criticism
The 2m rule is widely expected to be cut to 1m from 4 July for most settings, under a review to be confirmed by Boris Johnson this week, although it is likely that face masks and screens would be needed in classrooms as they are on public transport and pubs.
The Adonis proposals are backed by three former Education Secretaries, Alan Johnson, Lord Blunkett and Lord Baker, as well as David Laws who was Lib Dem schools minister in the coalition government.
The Government has faced widespread criticism over its lack of support for schoolchildren during the pandemic, with speculation mounting in Westminster that Gavin Williamson will be sacked as Education Secretary in a reshuffle this September.
The Prime Minister had claimed in May that more primary school year groups would be returning to the classroom from next month, after reception, year 1 and year 6 went back on 1 June, but ministers were forced to shelve the wider plans because schools were not ready.
‘Working really hard’
Lord Blunkett told The Sunday Times that there was a “national emergency” and teachers in schools that have not been open “could, in all fairness to their colleagues, give up some of their time this summer. We have to prepare for the autumn.”
Kevin Courtney, co-general secretary of the National Education Union, said while he supported some aspects of the plan, “I do not think that it is sensible asking people to give up their contractual holiday. Teachers have been working really hard in this period.”
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, yesterday accused the Government of being “asleep at the wheel” over its plans to reopen schools.
She told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday that Mr Williamson had been “set a test, he has failed it miserably” and warned of a “generation who are left behind and locked out of future opportunities because of mistakes made during this pandemic”.
She added: “Frankly I don’t know what the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has been doing for the last three months because he should have been using this period of lockdown to prepare schools to ensure that the space is available, because many schools are cramped, particularly in inner city areas.”