PROTECTING education should have been the government’s first priority during the pandemic, education unions said as the Covid inquiry began its children and young people module today.
National Education Union leader Daniel Kebede said that Boris Johnson’s government “never committed to following the best scientific advice” and former education secretary Gavin Williamson “put petty-minded, tribal politics ahead of providing pragmatic and practical solutions.”
Schools and educators are still dealing with the legacy of the government’s “ill-conceived and hugely underfunded" Covid recovery plan when “protecting education should have been their top priority and should have come before schemes such as Eat Out To Help Out,” he added.
With unions preparing to give evidence to the inquiry, NASUWT teaching union leader Matt Wrack hit out at the “many mistakes made in the handling of the pandemic by the former government,” which “often made an extremely difficult situation more difficult than it needed to be.”
Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Pepe Di’Iasio said that schools and colleges “felt poorly supported by the government,” while being “bombarded with huge tracts of muddled guidance” during the pandemic.
“We’d hope that the Covid inquiry will recognise the importance of putting in place a national plan about how the education system will be supported in the event of a similar crisis in the future ... it would be more helpful to say how they would be supported to remain open,” he added.
“Perhaps the most distressing aspect of the pandemic in relation to children and young people, was that the impact was felt differently according to socioeconomic status.”
School closures and a free school meals “blunder,” which ended in an embarrassing U-turn by Mr Johnson’s government during the pandemic, are expected to be among issues scrutinised in the inquiry’s upcoming hearings.
It has not been confirmed whether the former prime minister will be called to give evidence as part of the children and young people module.
Previous hearings in a separate module saw a former key adviser to Mr Johnson say the then-government had made a “huge blunder” around the Marcus Rashford free school meals campaign, lamenting a lack of diversity among policymakers.
The England footballer’s high-profile campaign in 2020 persuaded the government to provide free meals to vulnerable youngsters in England.
