to think Boris Johnson is only bothered about schools being open - but not the number of pupils attending school

[chomalungma]

Because he hasn't got a grip on the Testing system.

Read this exchange in the Commons.

Keir Starmer:

The Prime Minister says we have capacity—he goes on and on about capacity. Let us test that. Three weeks ago, millions of children went back to school—that is a good thing. Then the inevitable happened. Kids get coughs, bugs, flu. That is what happens; it is in the job description. But there is no effective system in place to deal with it. Many cannot get tests quickly. Schools are allocated only 10 tests, and many wait days for results. The outcome is obvious: child and siblings off school; mum, dad or carer off work; and in some cases, all-year groups off school. How on earth did we get into this mess?

The Prime Minister

Come on: the right hon. and learned Gentleman knows perfectly well—or he will have read the advice from the four chief medical officers—that there is an exceptionally small risk to children of primary and secondary school age from this disease. He knows that children have a significantly lower rate of infection. That is all in the letter that they published today.

But he also knows that we are doing our level best to get every child who has symptoms a test, and further, that thanks to the efforts of teachers in this country, and of parents and pupils, 99.9% of our schools are now back, in spite of all his attempts throughout the summer to sow doubt on the idea that schools were safe. The people of this country had more common sense.

Keir Starmer

That is such a poor defence. The point is not whether the children have got covid, but that they have got covid symptoms and then they are off school. The Government’s own Department has shown that one in eight children are off school this week. That disrupts their education.

Whether it is covid symptoms or other symptoms is not the point. If the Prime Minister does not see that, he is really out of touch with families and what they have been going through in schooling, day in, day out in the last few weeks. The reality is that losing control of testing is a major reason why the Prime Minister is losing control of the virus

So it's true that many schools are open - and it's also true that many pupils are off from those open schools - some no doubt because pupils who think they are ill are self isolating and can't get a test.

I think it’s clear that the testing fiasco is causing many children to have their education interrupted, when he proclaimed he wanted schools open to avoid that very thing.

On the other hand, was it possible to predict how many people would want a test and therefore know in advance that the system would be overwhelmed? Difficult to say?

It was very possible; they only had to look at what happened in Scotland when our schools went back in August.

Yes I think this has become abundantly clear!

I completely agree. As long as Boris can say "schools are open" he's happy.

Boris doesn't give a shit about schools or anything else. He can't be bothered to give proper answers to anything and doesn't have a cohesive strategy in place to keep the country safe or the economy stable. Teachers are feeling like cannon fodder and doing their best, but just to keep repeating the mantra that he will keep all schools open is nonsense. As they weeks go by more and more children and staff are self isolating and if too many staff are unable to be in school it is just not tenable to keep a school open.

I know 4 local schools which have had to shut bubbles and send pupils home.

100% of those schools are open though.

Who'd have thought that pupils would be sent home if they had suspected CV?

Yes. 26% of my sons class are off and waiting for tests.