Keir Starmer says half-term should be used to vaccinate teachers and school staff
Boris Johnson warns that Labour plan to allow school staff to jump the vaccine queue could EXTEND the lockdown as Keir Starmer insists EVERY teacher should be vaccinated over half-term in huge million-jab blitz
- Labour leader called for educationalists to be bumped up the priority list for jabs
- The Government has been sending out mixed signals over school restart dates
- Some have suggested it could be after half term, others after Easter in April
Labour demands to allow teachers to jump the coronavirus vaccination queue could force the extension of lockdown and leave vulnerable people exposed, Boris Johnson claimed today.
The Prime Minister blasted a call by Opposition Leader Sir Keir Starmer for all school staff to get a jab at half-term to allow classrooms to open as soon as possible.
Sir Keir called for educationalists to be bumped up the priority list for jabs organised by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) amid anger at the continued closure, at Prime Minister’s Questions.
But Mr Johnson hit back in the Commons later as he officially delayed the return to school of millions of children by at least two weeks to March 8.
‘I really think the right honourable gentleman should reflect on what he is saying,’ he said.
‘Because the JCVI priority list 1-9 is designed by experts, by clinicians, to prioritise those groups who are most likely to die or to suffer from coronavirus.
‘By trying to change that and saying that he now wants to bring in other groups of public sector workers – to be decided by politicians – rather than by the JCVI, he has to explain which vaccines he would take from which vulnerable groups to make sense of his policy.
‘Because that is what the Labour proposal would involve. By making it more difficult for us to vaccinate all those vulnerable groups in the fastest possible way, that Labour route would actually delay our route out of lockdown, delay our ability to get kids back into school in the way that they want.
The Prime Minister blasted a call by Opposition Leader Sir Keir Starmer for all school staff to get a jab at half-term to allow classrooms to open as soon as possible
The Labour leader called for educationalists to be bumped up the priority list for jabs amid anger at the continued closure
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said today the Prime Minister would set out a ‘road map’ out of the lockdown, with reopening schools a priority.
Officials told the Times that the phased reopening starting in late February or early march was being examined
During Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir had asked: ‘Does he agree with me that once the first four categories of the most vulnerable have been vaccinated by mid-February, he should bring forward the vaccination of key workers and use the window of the February half-term to vaccinate all teachers and all school staff?’
Mr Johnson replied: ‘Of course, it follows that all teachers in JCVI groups one to nine will be vaccinated as a matter of priority.
‘And I pay to tribute, by the way, to the huge efforts parents are making across the country struggling to educate their kids, I know how deeply frustrating it is, the extra burden that we have placed on families by closing the schools.
‘And no-one has worked harder than my right honourable friend the Education Secretary to keep schools open. We all want to open schools.’
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said today the Prime Minister would set out a ‘road map’ out of the lockdown, with reopening schools a priority.
The Communities Secretary said: ‘You’ll have to wait for the Prime Minister to announce that – he has said that he wants to set out in the coming days and weeks a road map out of the present lockdown to give people greater confidence and certainty.’
Mr Johnson has said parents and schools will be given two weeks’ notice before pupils return to class.
The Prime Minister said at a press conference last night the Government will ‘look at’ the idea of reopening schools in areas where the virus is less prevalent, but he added that it was ‘pretty much a national picture at the moment’.
Pupils in schools and colleges in England, except children of key workers and vulnerable pupils, were told to learn remotely as part of the latest lockdown.
When asked how children across the country may return to school, Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference: ‘Clearly if we’re going to go back after half-term, February 22, we need to give two weeks’ notice.
‘We will be making sure we give advice well in advance of that about what we hope to do and give people some rough idea of when things might be possible.’
But the Prime Minister said the Government will want to look ‘very carefully’ at data on the rollout of the vaccination programme before announcing a timetable for reopening schools.
Mr Johnson added that getting primary school children back into class remains a ‘top priority’ when looking at reopening schools.
His comments came after the Public Health England (PHE) concluded that transmission of Covid-19 in primary schools was ‘extremely low’ and outbreaks were rare during the autumn term.
The PHE study found a ‘very low risk’ of infection in students and staff in primary schools, but it said similar studies were needed in secondary schools where the risks of infection are likely to be different.
Dr Shamez Ladhani, a PHE consultant paediatrician and study lead, said: ‘Schools should be the first setting to reopen when it is safe to do so, and we are carefully monitoring the data.’
Conservative MPs have called for schools to be reopened after the February half-term in areas where Covid-19 infection rates are low.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb said the Government will be led by the science when making decisions about ‘moving away from the lockdown conditions’.
The latest Government data shows that the number of children of key workers in schools in England during the lockdown has dropped in the past week.
Approximately 813,000 children of critical workers were in attendance on January 21, down from 820,000 on January 13. This represents 71% of all pupils in attendance at school last week.
But the overall proportion of pupils in class (14%) remains the same as the week before, according to figures from the Department for Education (DfE).
More than a fifth (21%) of primary school pupils were on-site last week, while 5% of secondary school students were in class – the same as on January 13.
The percentage of pupils with an education, health and care plan (EHCP), or with a social worker, in class has risen slightly on the week before.
New figures from the DfE show that an additional 74,489 laptops and tablets have been delivered or dispatched by the Government to help with remote learning in the past week.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said: ‘We continue to provide devices at huge speed and scale for those children who need them the most, with over 875,000 now delivered to schools and councils.
‘Over 300,000 of these have been delivered since schools closed to most pupils, helping ensure no child loses out while learning at home.
‘I want to thank teachers, school staff and parents who continue to work tirelessly to ensure vulnerable and critical worker children can still attend school, while delivering remote education for those at home.’
