Responding to the Education Secretary’s failure this morning to guarantee that schools will not close this winter – nor reopen in the new year – in the face of the Omicron variant, Liberal Democrat Education Spokesperson Munira Wilson MP said: “This failure to provide a cast-iron guarantee to parents, teachers and children on keeping our schools open just about says it all about this Government and their priorities.
“Time and time again, our children have been badly let down by the Government’s inability to get on top of Covid. The Education Secretary promised to “get a grip” of this crisis, but all evidence suggests that it’s slipping from his grasp as students miss out on millions of hours of lost learning every week.
“Both pupil and teacher absences are through the roof, and schools are paying out of their own pocket because the Conservatives have sat on their hands and refused to fund the mitigating measures necessary to keep our children’s education on track.
“Stumping up the £10 billion extra catch up funding that our children desperately need would be a good place to start.”