UK Covid Inquiry Hears School Closures Severely impacted Children, Reveals Dispute Over Planning
The UK’s Covid-19 inquiry resumed Monday with harrowing testimony detailing the pandemic’s devastating impact on children and young people, and also a revealed disagreement between former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Gavin Williamson, than Secretary of State for Education, regarding pandemic preparedness.
The inquiry heard that Johnson questioned Williamson’s claim that the Department for Education (DfE) wasn’t proactively planning for school closures, suggesting the DfE was aware of the possibility. “[Johnson’s] evidence suggests - but it’s a matter to be explored with him – that he thought that planning for school closures had been ongoing,” said lead counsel to the inquiry,Hugo Keith. He added that it was “significant” there was a dispute over weather planning for such a “seismic event” existed, and “perhaps alarming is the suggestion that it was not for the DfE to instigate its own planning for school closures but to wait for it to be commissioned.”
Chair Heather Hallett opened the session stating the pandemic’s impact on children was “severe and, for many, long-lasting,” resulting in missed education, social interaction, and increased risk for vulnerable children.
An impact film presented at the start of proceedings featured anonymized accounts from children affected by the closures. One contributor described a friend’s death, another detailed a 12-kilo weight loss while battling Covid, and a third recounted being placed on a ventilator. Parents shared struggles with home-schooling and the emotional toll of lockdown.
“In the end I just said we’re not doing it,” one single parent said of attempting to educate three children simultaneously, describing the confinement as “hell.” Another mother reported her son had been out of school as February 2022, expressing fears about his future: ”Our family life completely stopped… We should not sacrifice children. Children are the future.”
The inquiry continues Tuesday.
