Secondary Schools Asked To Test Pupils On-Site For Covid

Students take lateral flow tests at a school in Birmingham last year (PA)

- Rob Merrick

Secondary schools are being told to test all pupils for Covid on-site before they return to classes this week, amid a union warning that staff are “nervous” that kits will run out. Students and teachers should then test at home twice a week, new government guidance for England says – as should those at colleges and universities – to try to curb the spread of infections.

The advice comes as schools were given the go-ahead to keep pupils at home and return to online teaching if they have what the education secretary called an “impossible” shortage of teachers. In an open letter, Nadhim Zahawi said teaching “remotely” will be acceptable “if operational challenges caused by workforce shortages make delivery of face-to-face teaching impossible”.

The move came after he announced the return of mask-wearing in secondary school classes, triggering criticism from some Conservative MPs.