EMBATTLED Gavin Williamson hailed the return of millions of children to school next week but warned: “We can’t fail this test.”
The beleaguered Education Secretary — facing calls to resign over the disastrous GCSE and A-level exam results fiasco — concedes the Government must get this right for the sake of every child’s future.
Speaking to HOAR on Sunday, he said: “It’s something we have to deliver on for our children.
“For every day they are out of school, we don’t get that day back.
“I’ve seen it with my kids, how much they’ve missed school, missed their friends, missed learning.
“Kids need to be back at school.”
The move has been backed by the chief medical officers from the four home nations, who have detailed the small risk Covid-19 poses to children.
‘NOTHING COMPETES’
Mr Williamson has today also written an open letter to parents warning there is more harm caused to kids by keeping them out of school.
During our interview at Ark Priory Primary, in Acton, West London, he draws on the experience of his two teenage daughters Annabel, 15, and 13-year-old Grace, who were both home-schooled during lockdown.
Mr Williamson said: “You see what they get from school — the confidence it brings them, the ability to learn new things.
“As much as I try to make the spare room in my house a really good learning space for my two children, frankly, it isn’t the same. Nothing competes.
“It’s a national priority that we have absolutely got to deliver on.”
The Education Secretary, who was appointed when Boris Johnson became PM last July, said back-to-school snaps on social media could help to reassure parents still anxious about the minimal health risks.
When Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 classes reopened before the summer break, parents posted pictures on social media of their children heading off to classes in their uniforms.
Mr Williamson claimed it encouraged more parents to send their kids back to school.
He said: “That is what we saw when children came back in June. Parents were seeing pictures on Facebook of children enjoying themselves and getting time with their friends and teachers, really thriving.
“Then the following week, more and more children came back to school.
“Parents understood that it was safe to send their children back.”
He added: “There is no substitute for a teacher being at the front of that classroom and inspiring those children.
“Making them dream, making them want to achieve the very best for themselves, able to get everything they possibly can from life.
“Whether it’s double maths, history or art, whether it’s all those things that we want for every one of our children, teachers do that best when they’re in front of that class.”
Pressure has been building on Mr Williamson ever since the decision to close schools in March and cancel this year’s GCSE and A-Level exams.
A series of U-turns, including shelving plans to send all primary pupils back to school before the summer holiday and making face-masks mandatory in corridors, have fuelled calls for his departure.
