Education secretary Gavin Williamson accused of giving 'ambiguous' answers to headteachers' concerns

The News put a series of questions supplied by top teachers across the area to Mr Williamson as he visited Havant and South Downs College yesterday.

He was there to back his department’s £1.3m funding of the college’s T-level qualification provision.

But headteachers in surrounding schools seized the chance via The News to quiz Mr Williamson.

The senior Conservative MP, who flew a drone during his visit to the South Downs campus in College Road, Crookhorn, was accused by a headteacher of being in a government that had delivered a ‘kick in the teeth’ to schools.

All headteachers who spoke to The News demanded the education secretary address problems with testing so that staff and pupils who did not have the virus but were self-isolating could return to school quickly.

Just yesterday The News revealed Portsmouth councillors’ concerns a lack of testing in care homes and schools would force the economy to a grinding halt.

Asked about testing, Mr Williamson said: ‘It’s incredibly important to look to support schools to ensure pupils and teachers can access quick testing.

‘We are currently carrying out more than 200,000 tests each day and by next month we are looking to test more than 500,000 people.

‘We are also looking to increase the supply of home testing kits for all schools from the initial 10 and have now opened up a direct web order line to ensure schools can increase their numbers.’

But Crofton School headteacher, Simon Harrison, said his school’s 10 kits had been used up quickly and he had to wait 21 days before ordering more.

He said: ‘Absences are very disruptive to students at a time when they are working so hard to catch up.

‘This is also a big issue for schools operationally as the same delays are being seen with staff, whether waiting for their own results or self-isolating whilst awaiting results for others in their household.’

Cowplain School headteacher, Ian Gates, added: ‘After all the efforts schools have made to ensure children return to schools this feels like a huge kick in the teeth.’

Told about Mr Williamson’s answers, one of the region’s longest serving headteachers, Julie Summerfield at Horndean Technology College, said: ‘A lot of Mr Williamson’s answers are quite ambiguous and don’t explain how targets are going to be achieved.’

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Other teachers were concerned about the provision of technology for disadvantaged students.

The Department for Education did provide some free laptops but this was mainly focused on Year 10 pupils.

Lyndhurst Junior School headteacher, Ali Beechurst, said there was a ‘huge gap in equality of access for pupils from poorer families’.

She said: ‘A number of children currently off because a member of their family has symptoms, only have access to the internet on a parent's mobile phone.’

Mr Williamson yesterday said he was committed to narrowing the digital divide.

He said: ‘We have already purchased an additional 150,000 laptops to provide to schools to help them to continue to deliver the curriculum to disadvantaged children should there be a local lockdown.’

Worries were also raised about future exams.

Mr Williamson, who said there would be more support for pupils ahead of exams, said: ‘I can confirm that we plan to run all our exams as normal at the end of this academic year.’

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