The NASUWT has joined with other unions with members in the education sector to call for the Government to step back from the 1st June for reopening schools and to work with unions to create the conditions for a safe return to schools.
Despite giving full details as to why they have taken this stance, the gutter press have decided to use rhetoric that you would see during a major war such as The Falklands or WWII.
Accusing the teaching unions as being cowards and not brave like the NHS and care workers, they expect teachers to work without any concerns for the safety of the children in their schools, or that of their parents and the wider community.
The Government has come up with no solutions to the serious problem of having to ensure social-distancing and ignore the fact that childhood ill-health such as colds and stomach complaints often spread round schools like wild- fire.
Pitting worker against worker is the oldest trick in the book used by both the Government and the right-wing gutter press in this country.
The General Secretaries of 10 teacher trade unions across the UK and Ireland wrote on 5th May, to the Education Ministers in all 5 jurisdictions urging “significant caution in any consideration of reopening schools.”
The letter, sent by the British Irish Group of Teacher Unions (BIGTU) on behalf of almost 1 million teachers and education staff, warns of the “very real risk of creating a spike in the transmission of the virus by a premature opening of schools”.
It calls for the establishment of sufficient capacity to “test trace and isolate” the infection as a prerequisite for school reopening, alongside “significant operational changes [being] in place to ensure effective social distancing, strong hygiene routines linked to thorough cleansing practices, appropriate PPE [being] available where required, and ongoing risk assessments in place to monitor operations.”
The letter reads:
Dear Minister,
We write collectively as the British and Irish Group of Teacher Unions (BIGTU) with regard to the issue of schools reopening across the 4 jurisdictions of the UK and that of the Republic of Ireland, following an end to lockdown arrangements in all our countries.
Collectively BIGTU represents almost one million education practitioners and staff, all of whom are committed to the children and young people we teach and support, as evidenced by the efforts which have been made by our members to support provision for children of key workers and also remote learning for others during lockdown. We hope, therefore, that you might give some consideration to our views, as the voice of the profession.
We wish to urge significant caution in any consideration of reopening schools.
Firstly, we would highlight the very real risk of creating a spike in the transmission of the virus by a premature opening of schools. We are convinced by the experience of other systems that a critical tool in preventing a surge of infection is an established capacity to “test trace and isolate” and we would argue that reopening schools before such a regime is in place, would be catastrophic to the rate of infection.
Secondly, it is clear to all that schools can only reopen and operate safely if there are significant operational changes in place to ensure effective social distancing, strong hygiene routines linked to thorough cleansing practices, appropriate PPE available where required, and ongoing risk assessments in place to monitor operations. This will mean that as schools cannot reopen as normal, a phased return will be required and priorities established around attendance, which is likely to be part time for most pupils.
As part of the establishing of priorities we would stress a third point – which is the need to consider equity. We recognise that children from poor and challenged backgrounds and vulnerable children will inevitably require significant additional support as we move slowly back to a more settled situation. We need to recognise, also, that potentially all children will have suffered a level of trauma as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic and we would urge that the initial focus when schools reopen, in any capacity, should be on the health, well-being, and emotional resilience of our students.
BIGTU also includes teacher trade unions which represent teaching, research and senior administrative staff in Higher and Further Education institutions in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Although many of the issues of concern to staff in these institutions are represented in the foregoing we do recognise that, at governmental level, it is common for matters pertaining to Higher Education and Further Education to be dealt with by a separate government departments. For this reason, and to facilitate a comprehensive response to the concerns of our members in all of the sectors, we will set out our submissions regarding Higher Education and Further Education separately in the attached addendum.
Finally, we would underline the strong commitment of the teaching profession referred to above. At the same time, we would assert the importance of Government taking teachers with them as we continue our societal response to COVID 19. That means sharing all available data informing decision making, demonstrating a commitment to the health and safety not only of pupils but of teachers and support staff also (recognising that many of them may well have suffered stress and trauma as well as their pupils), and above all listening to and respecting their collective expertise as practitioners by engaging meaningfully with their professional associations before arriving at decisions.
Thank you for your attention to this letter. We remain open to further dialogue and country specific bilateral engagement.
The letter was sent to:
Gavin Williamson MP Secretary of State for Education, UK Parliament
John Swinney MSP Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, Scottish Parliament
Kirsty Williams AM Minister for Education, National Assembly of Wales
Joe McHugh TD Minister of Education and Skills, Dail Eireann
Peter Weir MLA Minister for Education, Northern Ireland Assembly
The letter is signed by:
Patrick Roach, General Secretary NASUWT
Larry Flanagan, General Secretary EIS (Educational Institute of Scotland)
Seamus Searson, General Secretary SSTA (Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association)
Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary NEU (National Education Union)
Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary NEU (National Education Union)
Jo Grady, General Secretary UCU (University and College union)
John Mac Gabhann, General Secretary TUI (Teachers Union of Ireland)
Kieran Christie, General Secretary ASTI (Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland)
Joan Donegan, General Secretary IFUT (Irish Federation of University Teachers)
John Boyle, General Secretary INTO (Irish National Teachers’ Association)
Jacquie White, General Secretary UTU (Ulster Teachers’ Union)
Issueing a press release on 12th May, the NASUWT said:
Responding to the evidence given today (12th May) by Osama Rahman, Chief Scientific Adviser and Director of Analysis at the Department for Education to the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee in which he presented the basis for the Government’s plan to start to reopen schools from 1 June, the NASUWT was unequivocal.
Dr Patrick Roach, NASUWT General Secretary, said:
“The admissions by the Department for Education’s Chief Scientific Adviser are truly shocking and disturbing.
The Government has simply not provided a single shred of evidence that opening schools from June 1st will be safe for children or for teachers.
The Government’s health and safety guidance to make schools ‘COVID-19-secure’ is also woefully inadequate, and has done nothing to assure teachers or parents that it will be safe for schools to open to more children.
Schools have been placed in a situation where the wrong decision will result in people becoming seriously ill and dying.
The Government must now publish the scientific evidence it is relying on to claim that it will be safe for children to return to schools from June 1st.
The NASUWT is clear that there is no requirement or obligation currently on any school to reopen to more pupils from 1st June.
For the sake of public health, there must be no compromise on workplace health and safety.”
More recently they stated on 13th May:
“We all want schools to re-open, but that should only happen when it is safe to do so. The government is showing a lack of understanding about the dangers of the spread of coronavirus within schools, and outwards from schools to parents, sibling and relatives, and to the wider community.
“Uniquely, it appears, school staff will not be protected by social distancing rules. 15 children in a class, combined with their very young age, means that classrooms of 4 and 5-year olds could become sources of Covid-19 transmission and spread. While we know that children generally have mild symptoms, we do not know enough about whether they can transmit the disease to adults. We do not think that the government should be posing this level of risk to our society.
“We call on the government to step back from the 1st June and work with us to create the conditions for a safe return to schools based on the principles and tests we have set out.”
The principles and tests include
- Safety and welfare of pupils and staff as the paramount principle
- No increase in pupil numbers until full rollout of a national test and trace scheme
- A national Covid-19 education taskforce with government, unions and education stakeholders to agree statutory guidance for safe reopening of schools
- Consideration of the specific needs of vulnerable students and families facing economic disadvantage
- Additional resources for enhanced school cleaning, PPE and risk assessments
Local autonomy to close schools where testing indicates clusters of new covid-19 cases
You can download the NASUWT Safety checklist for Schools from the Unionsafety E-Library here
Source: NASUWT / Daily Mail / BBC News / The Guardian
