Commenting on the UK Covid-19 Inquiry’s start of evidence for its children and young people module, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said:
"Teachers and school staff showed enormous dedication to support children through the pandemic despite the obstacles placed in their path by a government that never committed to following the best scientific advice. Protecting education should have been their top priority and should have come before schemes such as Eat Out to Help Out which increased the incidence of COVID.
"Schools and their staff were unlucky to be led by Gavin Williamson. He put petty-minded, tribal politics ahead of providing pragmatic and practical solutions – the distribution of laptops was a disgrace, the botched exam grading of 2020 a disaster, and he was schooled on feeding disadvantaged pupils by Marcus Rashford.
"Many children suffered during Covid through lost learning and damage to their mental health. The government’s COVID recovery plan was ill conceived and hugely underfunded. Schools and educators are still dealing with the legacy of this.
"We do not know when the next pandemic will hit or who will be most at risk next time, but we hope the inquiry will make positive recommendations about what steps our education system needs to take to try to ensure that both staff and students can continue to learn safely, with minimum disruption."