Yahoo Finance Exclusive: Headmaster becomes first to break ranks and defy Government guidance on face masks in classroom
A headmaster has become the first to break ranks and defy the Government's guidance on face masks in the classroom.
David Perks, principal at East London Science School, said he refuses to enforce masks in lessons as he accused ministers of "pandering to the unions" by changing the guidance.
He told The Telegraph: “To do now what we have not done for a year and to put a restriction on our ability to teach children just does not add up. It puts a psychological and physical barrier between staff and children that is just destructive.”
The Prime Minister announced on Monday that secondary school students should wear masks in the classroom when they return if it is not possible for them to keep two metres apart.
The latest guidance goes much further than earlier Government recommendations on face masks in secondary schools.
During the autumn term, official guidance said face masks should be worn in corridors and communal areas in parts of the country under Tier 2 or Tier 3 restrictions. Elsewhere, it was left to the discretion of headteachers.
Boris Johnson said the measure would be in place for secondary pupils for the rest of this term to offer "even greater reassurance" that face-to-face teaching is safe.
Mr Perks, who founded the East London Science School in 2013 as a free school, said that he “does not like ignoring advice”.
But he explained: “We are here to educate children and it is a significant detriment to do something that does not make sense.
“It is not very often you have to do something like that but this is important. If you slip on it now, you will never come back. It is a line in the sand.”
He said that students will be left to decide whether they wish to wear a mask in the classroom, but that the school will not enforce it.
Mr Perks said he believed that the guidance had been changed on face masks in the classrooms because ministers “are pandering to unions who are very vocal against it”.
The UK’s largest teacher union, National Education Union (NEU), has called for face masks to be worn in secondary classrooms, but deny playing a role in the Government’s decision to amend their guidance.
Last month the NEU published their “education recovery plan” which said facemasks should be worn by secondary pupils in “in classrooms as well as all other areas of the school”.
Mr Perks said he wanted to speak out publicly on the issue of face masks in the hope that this would encourage other headteachers to follow his lead.
“I would like to think that maybe if they [other headteachers] see that someone is doing it, there is a chance they will think ‘we can do something sensible as well’ and given the opportunity they would do something similar,” he said.
This week Nick Gibb, the schools minister, acknowledged that it was "more challenging" to teach with masks and insisted they were not mandatory.
However, he said wearing face coverings was "highly recommended because we want to do everything we can to reduce the risk of transmission in the school".
