The Department for Education (DfE) has announced that mass Covid (coronavirus) testing of secondary school and college pupils will be rolled out in January.
To help schools and colleges to prepare, the return after the Christmas holidays will be staggered, with many secondary school pupils remaining at home and learning online.
The aim of mass testing is to identify asymptomatic students with the virus to prevent them infecting others.
Anyone testing positive can then be told to isolate, reducing the need to close down school classes or year ‘bubbles’.
The Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, said that armed forces personnel will support the planning for testing in schools and that it will be a “milestone moment” in keeping schools open.
Ian Pryce, principal and CEO of Bedford College responded to the news yesterday (Friday), saying: “The college is keen to ensure our staff and students can get mass testing, and to organise this on our campuses, so we welcome the announcement in principle.
“However, to announce it so late and expect it to work from 4 January (three working days later) is insulting.
“Our membership body (Association of Colleges) calculates that the sector needs 5,000 full time staff to make this work.
“On that basis Bedford College will need 50 new staff. They will need to be recruited and trained and supervised.
“We need to be given the money to do it, and the time to organise it, especially given the risks it will pose to health of the testers without medical PPE.
“There may also be insurance and safeguarding issues to address. It is important to get it right and we know that poor execution of these tests gives false results, which would be dangerous.”
Tests will be optional and will require parental consent.
