Coronavirus: All schools and colleges in Wales to move to online learning until January 18
All schools and colleges in Wales will move to online learning until January 18, the Welsh Government has announced.
Ministers had faced mounting pressure from teaching unions, who criticised plans for schools to reopen in the new year as the coronavirus crisis continues.
Welsh education minister Kirsty Williams said the change of plan is "the best way to ensure that parents, staff and learners can be confident in the return to face-to-face learning, based on the latest evidence and information."
Schools and colleges will remain open for children of critical workers and vulnerable learners, as well as for learners who need to complete essential exams or assessments.
Before Monday's announcement, some schools in Wales were preparing to resume face-to-face learning as early as Wednesday.
This was in line with the Welsh Government's initial 'phased return' plan, allowing schools to choose when to reopen based on the situation in their area, ahead of an expected full return by January 18.
But education unions urged ministers to rethink the plan due to safety concerns after it was announced the Covid-19 variant spreading across Wales was around 70 per cent more transmissible.
In a video message, the education minister said: "We will use the next two weeks to continue to work with local authorities, schools and colleges to best plan for the rest of term.
"We had already ensured that schools had full flexibility in the first two weeks of term to decide when to reopen based on local circumstances.
"But it is now clear that a national approach of online learning for the next fortnight is the best way to contribute to reducing the transmission of coronavirus.
"We know that schools and colleges have been safe and secure environments throughout the pandemic and that continues to be the case.
"However, we also know that education settings being open can contribute to wider social mixing outside the school and college environment.
"We are confident that schools and colleges have online learning provision in place for this immediate period, and this will also be important in ensuring that students are at home during this time, learning and staying safe."
Kirsty Williams said the decision was made jointly with the WLGA - the organisation representing Welsh councils - and further education body Colegau Cymru.
It is likely that the January 18 date will be subject to a review before any further decisions are made.
ITV Wales Political Editor Adrian Masters explains more on the changes:
Plaid Cymru’s shadow minister for education accused the Welsh Government of "lagging behind" and said the move was "clarity at the eleventh hour".
Siân Gwenllian MS said: “It is unclear what the Welsh Government expects will change in just two weeks’ time and so we risk being in the same position yet again with yet more confusion in a fortnight."
Welsh Conservatives' shadow minister for education Suzy Davies MS said the news has "come late for [children] and for their parents.”
Unions welcomed the decision but also said it had taken too long.
On Monday, just hours before the announcement, health minister Vaughan Gething had defended the Welsh Government's original decision around schools reopening.
But he also said that any changes would be based on new evidence about the variant and its impact, which "may lead to a different choice".
Mr Gething told the Welsh Government's Covid-19 press briefing: "We're expecting updated advice from our own scientific and public health experts over the next few days. If we get that later today that may lead to a decision, if we get that tomorrow it may lead to a decision.
"But I want to be really clear, the deliberate choices we are making are always underpinned by evidence.
"We have good evidence - and it's a credit to teachers and education leaders and school support staff more generally - that our schools have been environments where learning has taken place, and where we don't have evidence that there's been transmission between pupils and staff.
"That shows the control measures that have been put in place have been largely effective and that is to the credit of people who are running our schools and the way that our learners have behaved as well.
"It's really... that the larger concern about the impact of schools opening on the transmission rate has been about the fact that it means there are more opportunities for adults to mix as well."
It comes as the UK's chief medical officers agreed to raise the Covid-19 threat level to five - its highest - meaning "transmission is high or rising exponentially" and "there is a material risk of healthcare services being overwhelmed".
The threat level is not the same thing as Wales' alert levels or the tier systems elsewhere in the UK.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister set out emergency measures for England to help control the spread of coronavirus.
In a televised address on Monday evening, Boris Johnson announced a new lockdown for the whole of England.
Wales, which is already in lockdown, will not be affected by the Prime Minister's announcement.
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced a lockdown for the rest of January, with a legal requirement to stay at home and schools closed to most pupils until February.
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