A MINISTER has defended the decision to open zoos and theme parks before schools claiming it will help entertain children. The government was yesterday forced into an embarrassing U-turn after it shelved its plans to fully reopen primary schools before the summer holidays. Furious MPs and campaigners said the reopening of pubs and theme parks […]
A MINISTER has defended the decision to open zoos and theme parks before schools claiming it will help entertain children.
The government was yesterday forced into an embarrassing U-turn after it shelved its plans to fully reopen primary schools before the summer holidays.
Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates
Furious MPs and campaigners said the reopening of pubs and theme parks are being prioritised over children’s life chances.
They called for a “national crusade” to create “Nightingale schools” in village halls and churches to get kids learning again.
Batting off the criticism today, business minister Nadim Zahawi claimed the reopening of zoos and safari parks would give families “other outdoor facilities that they can enjoy with their children”.
He told the BBC it had been “tough” for parents under lockdown and pointed to the £100m funding for disadvantaged families and stressed “our ultimate aim” was to have “everybody” in school by September.
Mr Zahawi added: “The same voices that last week were supporting people who are saying do not open up the schools are this week criticising us for saying we will take it deliberately carefully.”
Asked “where was the Nightingale plan?” Mr Zahawi insisted the government is working “as quickly and deliberately as we can”.
The Prime Minister will announce this afternoon that zoos, safari parks and drive-in cinemas will be opened from June 15 – yet kids will have to wait months before returning to the classroom.
Pubs, restaurants and hairdressers are then expected to reopen on July 4 when schools will be shut.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson yesterday said he hopes all kids will return to class in September, but fell short of promising to.
The shambolic U-turn was attacked by Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who has warned the closure of schools has been as disastrous for the economy as the 2008 financial crisis.
Robert Halfon, chairman of the education select committee, told the Commons that about 700,000 disadvantaged children were not doing home work and did not have proper access to computers or the internet.
Lord Blunkett, who served as Education secretary in Tony Blair’s government, accused the Government of a “triumph of fear over ambition” as he called for a “national effort to give all children a face to face experience before the end of July”.
He added: “I can only conclude that the Government is losing the plot.”
Former Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw said scrapped plans for reopening schools “smacks of poor organisation”.
He said the government “needs to get its act together, learn from the mistakes and make sure there is proper planning for September.”
Justine Greening, Education secretary from 2016 to 2018, said it was “untenable to still have no Government plan to get schools reopened”.
Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield warned a massive “educational gap” is being created by keeping schools shut for many kids.
She said: “Look at some of the things the Government has prioritised over recent months at vast scale and speed — the measures to save jobs, the 4,000-bed hospitals, propping up the economy.
“All of those things have happened in a way that is unimaginable. It’s that level of will and determination that’s needed.”
Steve Chalke, head of the Oasis academy schools chain, told The Sun there needs to be a “national crusade” to find community spaces to teach kids in.
And Professor Carl Heneghan, Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford University, said it may be worth considering a Swedish model where those at risk are sheltered and younger people are allowed to contract the virus to build herd immunity.
Just two children aged five to 14 have died from Covid-19 in England and Wales, which is equivalent to one in every 3.58million in that age group.
But this jumps to one in 3,478 for adults aged 45 to 64 and one in 55 for those 90-plus.
Children have more chance of being hit by lightning than dying of Covid-19.
According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, between 30 and 60 people are struck by lightning each year in Britain, a population risk of between one in 2.21 million and one in 1.1 million annually.
So far in the UK, 40,883 have died from coronavirus after 286 further deaths were recorded yesterday.
