Education Secretary urged to keep school face mask rule

Educational unions, parents and students have written to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson to express concern at reported Government plans to stop requiring children to wear face coverings in secondary school classrooms in England from 17 May.  

Signed by unions NEU, UNITE, UNISON, GMB, NASUWT, the letter says: “To strip these necessary protections, when there are already too few mitigation measures in schools, and when rates of Covid-19 are still significant would have consequences for the health of our children and their parents as well as their communities." The letter is also signed by 20 leading scientists and public health experts from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Exeter, UCL, Queen Mary University of London among top British scientific institutions.

The letter points to recent ONS data confirming a marked rise in infections over March among children after schools opened for just a few weeks before the Easter Break. It points out that according to the latest data, between 10-13% of children who are infected with COVID-19 develop persistent symptoms after infection lasting 5 weeks or more, an indication of ‘Long COVID’.

Catherine Wilson, Head of support, Parents United UK: “The removal of masks for secondary school pupils contradicts the available health and safety information we have regarding COVID-19 and threatens to increase the volume of COVID-19 infections in our un-vaccinated children and young people, in addition to school staff and families.