A union has said schools should remain closed in England until testing systems are ready – amid rising cases of a new coronavirus variant.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) told BBC Breakfast: “Eminent scientists have said that schools should remain closed; that’s what unions I think have been responding to.
“None of this is to create problems because we know those tests are going to help more young people to keep from being disrupted – it’s a really good idea.”
Year 11 and Year 13 pupils are due to return to secondary schools in England next week, while others will begin online.
Nicola Mason, head of Chase Terrace Academy in Burntwood, Staffordshire, said the government’s mass testing plans for secondary schools had caused a lot of “stress and panic” for teachers over Christmas, with information coming to schools “very late”.
The military is to support the new mass testing programme in schools, it has been announced.
India becomes the latest country to detect the new, more transmissible coronavirus variant.
