ZCZC
BFF-43
HEALTH-VIRUS-BRITAIN-SCHOOL-TRAVEL
UK govt under pressure over continued schools’ closure
LONDON, Jan 25, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – The UK government faced growing pressure
on Monday to detail a strategy to reopen schools in England, following a
backlash from lawmakers about reports they could remain closed for months.
A dozen MPs from Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ruling Conservatives have
warned publicly that pupils risk becoming the pandemic’s “forgotten victims”
and demand schools fully reopen sooner.
The group — which includes former Cabinet minister Esther McVey and
Graham Brady, head of an influential committee of Conservative lawmakers —
backed a parents’ pressure group campaign on the issue.
“We need to get our children learning again – with clarity from
@educationgovuk and an education routemap out of the coronavirus,”
Conservative MP Rob Halfon, chairman of parliament’s watchdog education
committee, said on Twitter.
“The engine of government should be directed towards opening our schools.
We face an epidemic of educational poverty and mental health otherwise.”
However, Halfon’s bid to force a government statement on the issue in
parliament Monday failed after House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle opted
against selecting his urgent question on the issue.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is widely expected to address the
matter later this week, and confirm that students will not return to
classrooms after the mid-February half-term break as ministers had once
hoped.
Johnson closed schools to all but the children of key workers this month
as Covid-19 infections surged across the country, largely due to the
emergence of a more contagious virus variant in recent months.
– Quarantine hotels –
The dramatic spike in cases through December has led to unprecedented
levels of hospitalisations and fatalities from coronavirus, with Britain now
approaching 100,000 deaths during the pandemic.
Although the number of new cases has begun to fall this month, Health
Secretary Matt Hancock declined Sunday to guarantee schools would be back by
Easter in early April, noting that infection rates would need to come down
further.
The UK government sets education policy in England. The sector is handled
by the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland,
where schools have also been shut.
Meanwhile, the government is also being urged to beef up its borders
policy amid fears other new virus strains could be imported.
Ministers have for weeks been mulling whether to require all incoming
travellers to isolate in hotels, and a decision is expected within days.
Earlier this month, the UK scrapped its “travel corridors” from countries
with lower caseloads following the emergence of new variants, and now asks
arrivals to show negative Covid-19 tests and then self-isolate.
But following calls for even stricter curbs, senior ministers are on
Tuesday due to discuss requiring arriving travellers to pay to quarantine at
a designated hotel to ensure they are following the self-isolation rules.
It comes as border rules were being tightened around the world.
The United States on Monday was set to reimpose a ban on most non-US
citizens who have been in Britain, Brazil, Ireland and much of Europe from
visiting, as well as adding South Africa to the list.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1711 hrs