MORE than 150,000 teachers and education staff have backed the National Education Union (NEU’s) call for schools to close during England’s second coronavirus lockdown from Thursday.

The union is demanding that the lockdown Bill include an amendment to close schools and colleges before it is voted on in Parliament on Wednesday.

Its campaign was launched on Saturday, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that there will be a lockdown initially lasting a month.

NEU joint general secretary Kevin Courtney said: “The government is failing our communities as well as our schools and colleges, and that is why we are seeking an amendment to Parliament’s lockdown Bill.”

The NEU added that schools and colleges are “still crying out” for regular testing, a fit-for-purpose track and trace system, and support to expand school space, reduce class sizes and maintain social distancing.

It added that schools currently have to pay for safety measures out of their existing funds, despite already stretched budgets. 

Andrew Hayward, of University College London and a member of the government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), has said that schools should close.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said that there is “substantial transmission” in secondary schools and that not closing them could result in the lockdown lasting beyond December 2.

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that virus levels increased nine times among primary pupils and 50 times among secondary pupils between September 1 and October 23. 

Cabinet minister and former education secretary Michael Gove has said that Whitehall was willing to extend the lockdown to keep schools open.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said that ministers should have timed the lockdown to have taken place during October half-term.