All schools in England will close on Friday along with those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as coronavirus continues to wreak havoc in the UK.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced the move and said that when school gates shut on Friday they will not reopen for the foreseeable future.
However, a skeleton operation will be kept in place across the country so that the children of key workers can be looked after and enable their parents to continue to work.
GCSE and A-Level exams planned for May and June will be postponed while nurseries and private schools have also been told to close.
Mr Williamson’s announcement relating to schools in England – confirmed by Boris Johnson at his daily coronavirus press conference – came after the other three Home Nations had already committed to the move.
It came as the number of positive tests for coronavirus in the UK hit 2,626 while the death toll jumped overnight by 33 to a total of 104.
The Welsh government had said earlier all schools will close for an early Easter break by Friday at the latest while Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, said her country will be doing the same amid claims up to 20 per cent of teachers are in self-isolation.
Ms Sturgeon had already suggested parents are in for the long haul on school closures as she said she could not ‘promise that they will reopen before the summer holidays’.
News of Northern Ireland shutting its schools emerged immediately before Mr Williamson and Mr Johnson announced their plans for education provision in England.
Mr Johnson was under huge pressure to follow the lead of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and he confirmed shortly after 5pm this evening that it as the ‘right time’ for English schools to be closed ‘for the vast majority of pupils until further notice’.
He said: ‘The objective is to slow the spread of the virus and we judge that this is the right moment to do that.
‘But of course we also need to keep the NHS going and to treat the rising number of cases so we need health workers who are also parents to continue to go to work and we need other critical workers with children to keep doing their jobs too.’
Mr Johnson said that included police officers, supermarket delivery drivers and social care workers.
‘We therefore need schools to make provision for the children of these key workers who would otherwise be forced to stay home,’ he added.
Mr Johnson said having fewer children in schools would help slow the spread of the disease as he committed to providing children who receive free school meals with food vouchers to ensure families are not left struggling.
On the exam issue, the PM said tests will ‘not take place as planned’ but insisted that pupils ‘will get the qualifications they need and deserve’.
Senior figures in Whitehall feared a blanket closure of schools could adversely affect the health service because key workers could be forced off work to look after children.
But the escalating spread of the virus has prompted the government to pull the trigger on the measure with all eyes now on how ministers will ensure key workers can continue to work.
The government had also been reluctant to proceed with closures because of concerns that shutting classrooms could lead to elderly grandparents being asked to look after grandchildren while parents continue to work.
The over-70s are at increased risk of severe illness from coronavirus and have been urged to avoid all non-essential social contact.
The move to close schools came as the government vowed to increase coronavirus testing in NHS hospitals in order to get a better picture of the scale of the outbreak.
Meanwhile, leading supermarkets introduced forms of rationing to try to stop unnecessary panic buying. There are now calls for ministers to impose a single policy on all stores.
Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, told the Commons tonight that schools in England will close from Friday for the foreseeable future
Boris Johnson said provision would be put in place to enable the children of key workers to continue attending school
Nicola Sturgeon today announced that schools in Scotland will close on Friday because of the coronavirus outbreak. Wales has taken the same decision
Children & parents/carers arrive at school in West London. Many schools remain open despite the coronavirus crisis
On another day of major developments in the coronavirus outbreak:
- The number of confirmed cases of the disease worldwide hit 200,000 while the death toll stood at an estimated 8,000.
- In the UK some 56,221 people have been tested with 53,595 negative and 2,626 positive.
- The UK death toll currently stands at 104 after an increase of 33 overnight.
- Mr Johnson said the number of daily tests in NHS hospitals will increase from 5,000 to 25,000 and staff will be prioritised.
- Sainsbury’s announced customers will only be able to buy a maximum of three of any grocery products and two of the most popular products like toilet paper.
Education is a devolved matter in the UK which means devolved administrations have the final say on what happens to schools within their borders.
Minister for Education in the devolved Welsh government Kirsty Williams announced this afternoon that closures in Wales would go ahead.
She said: ‘Today, I can announce we are bringing forward the Easter break for schools in Wales. Schools across Wales will close for statutory provision of education at the latest on 20 March 2020.
‘I have been clear up to now that the continuity of education and the wellbeing of our learners has been at the heart of my decision making. This will always be the case.
‘From next week, schools will have a new purpose. They will help support those most in need, including people involved in the immediate response to the coronavirus outbreak. I am working with my colleagues in the Cabinet, with government officials and our partners in local government to develop and finalise these plans.’
She said those plans would focus on ‘supporting and safeguarding the vulnerable and ensuring continuity of learning’.
Ms Williams said that ‘childcare settings are expected to remain open until we have definitive advice from the Chief Medical Officer and from Public Health Wales that any closures are required’.
Ms Sturgeon said schools in Scotland had now lost too many staff through self-isolation to continue functioning as normal.
She said: ‘My view is that it is now inevitable that we will close schools and nurseries and my planning assumption now is that schools will close to pupils at the end of this week. I wanted today to give parents notice of that now.’
She added: ‘We have the reality on the ground as people do the right thing and follow the advice to self-isolate or to isolate as a household, more and more schools are approaching the point where they have lost too many staff to continue as normal.’
The Scottish First Minister said measures would be put in place to try to ensure doctors, nurses and other critical staff who have children can still work.
‘Lives are on the line if they cannot,’ she said.
Meanwhile, Ms Sturgeon said she did not know when schools in Scotland would be able to reopen.
‘On the question that I know parents and the wider public will have of how long this will last, the clearest guidance I can give now is that people should not assume that schools and nurseries will reopen after the Easter break,’ she said.
‘We will of course only keep them closed for as long as we absolutely have to but at this stage I cannot promise that they will reopen before the summer holidays.’
Mr Johnson had told MPs during PMQs earlier today that decisions on education provision in England would be taken ‘imminently’.
He said: ‘We will do everything we can to remove burdens on schools and Ofsted is one in particular we can address.
A petition calling on the government to close schools across the UK has more than 672,000 signatures
‘The House should expect further decisions to be taken imminently on schools and how to make sure we square the circle both of making sure we stop the spread of the disease but also making sure we relieve, as much as we can, pressure on our NHS.’
The announcements came after it emerged that pupils in some parts of the country were apparently sitting in empty classrooms while others were believed to be ‘faking coughs’ to stay home amid parents’ fury that schools were still open.
A petition demanding all schools and colleges be shut down for an ‘appropriate amount of time’ has been surging in recent days.
Before the school closure announcements were made, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, Geoff Barton, had warned many schools would not be able to remain open past the end of the week.
He said roughly 10 to 20 per cent of teachers were self-isolating but the number was ‘rapidly rising’.
Concerned teachers have also claimed as the outbreak has worsened they were unable to keep classrooms clean enough around the clock.
Alderman White School in Bramcote, near Nottingham, had this morning asked parents to keep their children at home today, if they could provide childcare.
It was also announced today that Marlborough College in Wiltshire would move to an ‘online learning environment’ and Eton College – Mr Johnson’s old stomping ground – would also close to pupils.
The public school – which has fees of over £14,000 per term – decided to send pupils home this afternoon.
One member of staff at the school, who did not want to be named, said: ‘I don’t think it’s much of a secret. We’re sending the boys home at lunch today.’
A spokesman for Marlborough College said staff wanted to do their best to implement social distancing guidelines set out by the government.
Boris Johnson’s old stomping ground Eton College (pictured above) near Windsor, is to shut down in order to combat the coronavirus pandemic
Marlborough College (pictured) in Wiltshire also said it was moving to an ‘online learning environment’ from 1pm today
They said: ‘Marlborough College is moving to a “virtual school” environment from 1pm on 18th March.
‘This decision will enable the College to continue to operate, given the increasing numbers of pupils and staff taking precautionary measures to self-isolate or to preempt further global travel restrictions which is making it impossible for the College to provide effective full boarding 24/7 residential care.
‘The College will continue to deliver its timetabled academic lessons, pastoral support and co-curricular provision to pupils remotely, utilising a number of online platforms and delivery methods.
‘The College has no confirmed case of COVID-19 and the campus will not be closed. All members of staff will continue with their duties until the end of term’.
Parents have suggested some children have tried to capitalise on the outbreak in order to avoid going to school.
One said children ‘were not stupid’ and added: ‘Get Boris to close schools! All the children are making up a cough to come home anyway 40 sent home yesterday from one school yesterday and there’s probably nothing wrong with them yet!’
Meanwhile, some schools have reportedly been incorporating cleaning into lesson plans, asking pupils to help keep classrooms as hygienic as possible.