Call to reinstate mandatory mask rule in UK schools intensifies

EDUCATION community and school unions are calling on the UK government to reinstate masks in classrooms in response to the growing number of Covid cases among secondary pupils. Dozens of schools in England with rising cases have already reinstated the rule. 

Chair of Independent SAGE Sir David King, a former government chief scientific adviser, is among the prominent figures who have strongly condemned the authorities for removing the mandatory face coverings in all secondary schools prematurely. 

“Let me ask you, if I may, to ask the government: are they actually believing in herd immunity amongst school children? Is that why they’re saying take masks off, so that the disease spreads rapidly and they all become immune by having had the disease?” King said on Sky News on Monday (7). 

National Education Union (NEU), the UK’s biggest education group with 450,000 members, is also opposing the government’s move to lift the mask requirement.  

“We advised the government it was premature to be taking the masks away,” said Mary Bousted, NEU joint general secretary, adding that they will be “arguing yet again that removing the requirement to wear masks was incomprehensible and it should be reinstated.” 

Dozens of schools in Britain have already started reintroducing mask requirements in the classroom amid rising concerns over the “highly transmissible” delta variant. Since May 17, secondary pupils nationwide have not been required to wear face masks in classrooms, though the Department of Education (DfE) advises that local authorities can decide to reintroduce them in response to local outbreaks. 

Schools in areas with high Covid infection rates, including those in Tameside, Cheshire and Oldham, Bedford, Kent and Staffordshire, have reintroduced mask-wearing amid evidence that the delta variant, first identified in India, is spreading rapidly in schools. 

About 21 per cent of primary and 31 per cent of secondary pupils were reported to be absent for Covid-related reasons in Bolton while Blackburn with Darwen reported 15 per cent and 13 per cent respectively.  

The DfE said there were 4,000 children in state schools with confirmed cases of Covid-19 on May 27, the same as the previous week, but the number of schools with suspected cases spiked to 19,000, while the self-isolating cases because of contacts within their school rocketed from 60,000 to 90,000, a 50 per cent increase in seven days.