7. Welsh Conservatives Debate: The impact of COVID on education

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:46 pm on 26 January 2022.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 4:46, 26 January 2022

I think it's a bit early for statistics. I'm just telling you about the experience of both Preston hospital and all the schools in Essex, because that is where my daughter teaches. I can tell you that the supply teaching agencies are simply unable to supply the schools with the people they need. They are desperately ringing everybody around to see if anybody will work extra hours or extra days because there are simply not enough people to keep teachers in front of pupils in the classroom. So, it has absolutely had a massive impact, both on children and also on their teachers.

And then I hear you say—. I think it was you, or your colleague was saying, that we shouldn't be requiring COVID passes in schools, that that has to end. We absolutely have an obligation to maintain—. Sorry, I beg your pardon: requiring masks in school, that that has to end immediately, that all restrictions—that was you—should be lifted on this, because we have an obligation to teachers. If they're prepared to go in and risk their health by going into places where we know that we're not going to have COVID passes in place, for obvious ethical reasons, then we have an obligation to ensure that we are keeping the workplace in school as safe as possible, and face masks is one of the tools with which they do that, as well as bubbling year groups and all the rest of it. So, I cannot understand why Laura Anne Jones yet again repeated the laissez-faire mantra of the extreme libertarians down in Westminster who resist any restraint on personal liberty, even when they expect different restrictions for other people. We owe it to our teachers to maintain face coverings in place. Until the data tells us that it is no longer necessary, that is on what we base our rules, and we have to ensure that the maximum number of children are in place, and that we are doing the maximum to repair all the damage, so—