Fears for children’s welfare as Boris Johnson delays opening schools for another three weeks

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CAMPAIGNERS and MPs hit out yesterday at Boris Johnson’s decision to delay reopening schools — warning of a disaster for kids’ education.

Children have already missed at least 111 school days out of a possible 190 since last March’s first Covid lockdown.

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Schools won’t reopen until March 8 at the earliest

MPs hit out at Boris Johnson’s decision and warned of a disaster for kids’ education

The Prime Minister scrapped plans to get them back to class after the February half-term, with March 8 now the earliest return date instead.

The announcement sparked widespread dismay, with calls to at least get primary school children back earlier.

Campaigners warned being stuck at home was damaging kids’ educational prospects and well-being.

In a stormy Commons session, Tory MP Joy Morrissey said: “As a mother of a nine-year-old, I can see young children are struggling and their cognitive development is determined at this age.

“We’re storing up a lifetime of problems of anxiety, mental health, obesity by having all of our young primary-aged children at home.

“Please may I urge the Prime Minister to have courage in these final months to bring children, particularly primary-aged children, back to school as quickly as possible.”

Ex-health minister Steve Brine demanded to know why we had to wait until March 8, “given we all agree and he has said today at the despatch box that schools are safe?”

Boris said he hoped schools could reopen on March 8 but the data would only be clear in the middle of February

Patrick Vallance said it would take weeks for cases to come down enough

The PM insisted he was desperate for them to reopen but March 8 “is about as fast as we think we can prudently go”.

He added that the country “would want them open in a cautious and sensible way”.

The Prime Minister also admitted it could take up to a year for children to catch up on the education they have missed.

He told MPs: “We recognise these extended school closures have had a huge impact on children’s learning, which will take more than a year to make up.”

“The reason we say 8 March is the earliest is we have to give a certain amount of time for the vaccine to bed in.”

He added: “We also need to be able to evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccine in driving down the number of deaths, and we won’t know that until the middle of February.”

The PM promised to start setting out a path out of lockdown by the end of February, but warned nothing will unlock for at least another 40 days. It also depends on cases falling and a smooth vaccine roll-out.

He told MPs: “Schools are the priority — they remain the priority.

“If we make progress and those conditions continue to be satisfied, then we will be looking simultaneously at the other restrictions we have.

“If we achieve our target of vaccinating everyone in the four most vulnerable groups with their first dose by 15 February — and every passing day sees more progress towards that goal — then those groups will have developed immunity from the virus by about three weeks later, that is by 8 March.

 

“We hope it will therefore be safe to commence the reopening of schools from Monday 8 March, with other economic and social restrictions being removed thereafter as and when the data permits.”

Chief Scientist Sir Patrick Vallance told a No10 briefing last night we should see the effects of the vaccine in mid-February.

But he warned: “It’s going to take weeks for this to start to come down to low levels.”

Schools had been due to return on February 22. Mr Johnson promised them two weeks’ notice and did not rule out a phased return.

He said his lockdown plan will show clearly “how we can reopen our schools, economy and get our lives back — a roadmap we can use as a country to defeat the virus and reclaim our lives.”

He said tiers will return but “we need to see impacts of vaccines on graphs of mortality”.

‘EDUCATION CATASTROPHE’

Education campaign groups last night warned that being stuck at home is already taking a devastating toll on millions of fed-up kids.

Liz Cole, founder of UsforThem, which campaigns for schools to reopen, said: “The school shutdown has been damaging children’s educational prospects and having a huge impact on their health and welfare.

Sir Keir Starmer called for key workers to get priority to the vaccine
Boris said now was not the time for an investigation into the pandemic as Britain was still fighting for it

“Yet education is still being treated as an optional extra. Teaching the nation’s children is an essential and critical service just like healthcare and food provision.”

She said Mr Johnson must either reopen schools now, or publish a full analysis explaining why not.

Ex-schools minister David Laws also warned Covid is causing an “education catastrophe”.

He said reopening schools “must be the absolute number one priority when Covid cases are down”.

He called for the PM to plough more cash into catch-up programmes and prioritise vaccination of teachers once the vulnerable are immunised.

Mr Laws, chairman of the Education Policy Institute, also said kids should be able to repeat a school year.

He added: “The damage that Covid has done to education and child well-being is huge. For this generation’s sake, we must step up and match the scale of this challenge.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer demanded teachers and school staff are vaccinated during half-term.

Mr Johnson last night pledged an extra £300million for schools to help kids catch up from the lockdown devastation.

But he dismissed calls to put teachers at the front of the vaccination queue, warning it would take jabs away “from the more vulnerable”.