UK  leader facing teacher-parent revolt over return-to school plan

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is in a tug-of-war with teacher unions in the face of growing controversy over the planned gradual reopening of schools from June 1, as those killed by COVID-19 approach 35,000.

The United Kingdom, the country most affected in Europe by the coronavirus, has

registered this Saturday 468 new deaths from COVID-19, totaling 34,466, according to data provided by the Ministry of Health, which has reported the

detection of 3,451 new. cases to total 240,161 people infected with the coronavirus since the crisis began.

The expected reopening of schools is part of the conservative government’s measures to gradually ease the confinement arranged in late March to contain the UK-19 pandemic of COVID-19.

The British Minister of Education, Gavin Williamson, reiterated on Saturday, at the daily press conference on the coronavirus, that the planned return of children to classrooms – in phases from June 1 – is based on scientific analysis of safety and thinking about the welfare of minors.

“Now we can start planning for a very limited return to school for some students as early as next month,” said Williamson, who has made it clear that the first to return to class will be those aged 5 to 7. and those who are in the last year of primary school (10 to 11 years old), as well as adolescents between 15 and 17 who will undergo major exams in the British educational program in 2021.

Happiest place
“The teachers know that there are children who have not talked or played with other children their age in the last two months. (The teachers) know that there are children in difficult or unhappy homes for whom school is the happiest time of the week. and it’s also the safest place to be, “added Williamson.

But the fear expressed by parents and the unions that represent teachers has opened a debate on whether it is safe for school children to return to classrooms in danger of contagion.

The tension between the Executive and the unions led this Saturday to the Children’s Commission in England, a non-governmental body responsible for ensuring the protection of minors, to ask the two parties to end this “quarrel”.

Johnson who returned to  10 Downing Street after a two-week convalescence following his own bout of coronavirus was originally riding high on a sympathy wave, which seems to have evaporated after his recent speech to the nation accompanied by table banging as he changed the government message from stay home and protect the health service (NHS) to “stay alert” (to an invisible foe). He seems to have lost much of his showmanship flair and  there are whispered concerns among some of his backbenchers as he slides in the polls and the new Labour Party leader becomes the flavor of the month