Thousands of secondary pupils will have to wear masks at school after yet another education U-turn.
With just days to go before children return, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson last night said face coverings will be compulsory in the communal areas of schools covered by local lockdowns.
A decision on whether to wear masks in other schools will be left to individual heads.
The move will be seen as a sop to unions and came hours after the Government said it had no plans to require their use.
The eleventh-hour U-turn followed new advice from the World Health Organisation at the weekend.
Mr Williamson said last night: ‘Our priority is to get children back to school safely. At each stage we have listened to the latest medical and scientific advice.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson last night said face coverings will be compulsory in the communal areas of schools covered by local lockdowns. Pictured, Prime Minister Boris Johnson during his visit to Appledore Shipyard in Devon on Tuesday
‘We have therefore decided to follow the World Health Organisation’s new advice. In local lockdown areas children in year seven and above should wear face coverings in communal spaces.
‘Outside of local lockdown areas face coverings won’t be required in schools, though schools will have the flexibility to introduce measures if they believe it is right in their specific circumstances.
‘I hope these steps will provide parents, pupils and teachers with further reassurance.’ The Department for Education said the rules would also apply in sixth-form colleges and universities.
But Tory MP Marcus Fysh described the decision as ‘utterly wrong’.
He said: ‘The country should be getting back to normal, not pandering to this scientifically illiterate guff.’
The volte-face came hours after Scotland said secondaries would receive ‘obligatory guidance’ that pupils should wear face coverings when moving around schools.
Some teaching unions leapt on the Scottish move to pressure ministers.
Katherine Birbalsingh, head of the Michaela Community School in Wembley, north-west London, tweeted that ‘masks mean mayhem’. Pictured, on Monday pupils from Bloomfield Collegiate School in Belfast were back in school for the first time since March
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, called for the U-turn to be ‘sooner rather than later.’ However, other heads voiced worries.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: ‘This will undoubtedly come at an additional and unforeseen cost, and may result in shortages as demand increases.
‘The Government needs to guarantee that enough masks will be available to schools and that the costs of getting hold of them are met in full and without delay.’
Meanwhile, Katherine Birbalsingh, head of the Michaela Community School in Wembley, north-west London, tweeted that ‘masks mean mayhem’.
Professor Russell Viner, a member of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies, previously said ‘there is very little evidence for the use of masks in schools’. Pictured, pupils at St Paul’s High School in Glasgow on August 12
‘[Pupils] will be pulling at each other’s masks, repositioning their own masks constantly, bullying each other over choice of mask etc,’ she predicted.
‘Add that to rise in chatter because teachers will not be able to hold kids to account for talking.
‘Kids will wear dirty reused masks. They will share masks. They will spit in each other masks and lick them for a joke.’ Ian Noon, of the National Deaf Children’s Society, said masks would present serious challenges for deaf pupils who need to read lips.
‘For some, there may be little point in them even attending school or college if they cannot understand their teachers and classmates,’ he said.
The WHO recommends children over 12 wear coverings where social distancing is difficult. It said rules should be based on whether there is widespread transmission of coronavirus in the community.
Joshua Lee disinfects tables at Queen’s Hill Primary School in Costessey near Norwich, as they prepare to reopen
Asked yesterday about a potential shift on the policy, Boris Johnson said: ‘If there are things we have to do to vary the advice on medical grounds, we will, of course, do that.
‘But as the chief medical officer and all our scientific advisers, have said, schools are safe.’
Professor Russell Viner, a member of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies, previously said ‘there is very little evidence for the use of masks in schools’.
He told the BBC’s Newsnight: ‘I think for young children we’re very clear it is not a good idea. For teenagers, again, we don’t have the evidence this is useful.’