EMMA LEWELL-BUCK: 'Our children and country deserve better than this charlatan and his inept cabinet'

At the beginning of this week thousands of Head Teachers wrote to the Secretary of State for Education stating the Government has failed to engage properly with them to ensure that the return of millions of children to school is as safe and well organised as it possibly can be.

Mid-week confusion has turned to whether pupils should be wearing face masks in communal areas. The Government says no citing Public Health England advice first issued in July yet last weekend the World Health Organisation states for those aged over 12 coverings would be

helpful in stopping the spread of the disease. From Monday in Scotland all secondary pupils will wear coverings in shared spaces, many Head Teachers in England have said they are ready to defy the Government’s advice and adopt the same practices. As I write this column there are

reports the Government are poised for another U- turn and will be announcing face coverings for all secondary pupils and staff. However, as keeping with previous announcements it is unclear if this will be a statutory requirement or left to individual schools to decide.

The head of Ofqual, England’s exam regulator also quit her post this week after the utter shambles over A level, GCSE and BTEC results which led to poorer children being downgraded and many losing university places. Still hundreds of thousands of BTEC students are awaiting their results. However, the Education Secretary who is ultimately responsible for that chaos and this week’s continued chaos remains in post. Any Secretary of State serious about the role would have resigned by now. Any Prime Minister that was serious about our children’s education would have sacked him by now.

Key questions remain such as how will remote learning be supported in the event of local lockdowns? What will be in place for childcare in the event of local lockdowns for those who have returned to work? What will be the arrangements for pick up and drop off in the school yard? How will children who rely on public transport get to and from school safely?

What will happen if there is an outbreak amongst teaching staff?

As with everything in this pandemic, trust matters, the reason so many parents, pupils, teachers and heads are nervous about this return is because time and time again the Prime Minister and his Cabinet have proven they are not up to the task. But far worse than that the Prime Minister has shown how little he cares, once again prioritising his holidays. He has been missing from office all summer, whilst the rest of us worked every single day to help our communities rebuild. Our children and country deserve better than this charlatan and his inept cabinet.