SECONDARY schools in Wales will switch to online learning from Monday, the Welsh Government has confirmed.

Minister for education, Kirsty Williams confirmed the move as part of a “national effort to reduce transmission of the coronavirus”.

The minister said: Minister Kirsty Williams said: “Every day, we are seeing more and more people admitted to hospital with coronavirus symptoms.

“The virus is putting our health service under significant and sustained pressure and it is important we all make a contribution to reduce its transmission.

“In his advice to me today, the CMO recommends that a move to online learning should be implemented for secondary school pupils as soon as is practicable.

“I can therefore confirm that a move to online learning should be implemented for secondary school pupils and college students from Monday next week.

“We recognise, as we did during the firebreak, that it is more difficult for primary and special school age children to undertake self-directed learning.

“That is why we are encouraging primary and special schools to continue to stay open.

“Having spoken to local education leaders, I am confident that schools and colleges have online learning provision in place.

“This will also be important in ensuring that students are at home during this time, learning and staying safe.

“Critically, and this is very important, children should be at home.

“This is not an early Christmas holiday, please do everything you can to minimise your contact with others.”

The Minister said her decision followed expert advice from Wales’s Chief Medical Officer showing that the public health situation in Wales was deteriorating.

The latest data shows that rates of COVID-19 have further increased across Wales and have now exceeded 370/100k with a test positivity of 17%.

The R rate in Wales has increased to 1.27 with a doubling time of just 11.7 days.

There had been calls for schools in Wales to close early in order to allow children time to quarantine ahead of the Christmas period, with some parents saying they would not send their children to school in the final week of term.

READ MORE:

However, the Welsh Government had previously stated schools would remain open.

On Monday, health minister Vaughan Gething said: "We have to take in account the fact that evidence doesn’t show significant harm we can reduce or avoid by closing them.

"What we do know is that it causes real harm to children and their prospects.

"It is also the direct impact on the mental health and wellbeing of children by closing schools."

While first minister Mark Drakeford said: “If I thought that those young people would genuinely be at home, genuinely self-isolating, genuinely creating that period before Christmas to keep them safe, I'd be attracted to the idea.

"I'm afraid the risks are that that simply wouldn't happen, that those children would be doing riskier things than they would in school. Better for them to be in school."

But there was pressure from teaching unions for a shift in position.

The National Association of Headteachers Cymru (NAHT) wrote to the minister for education, Kirsty Williams, to call for the closure of schools ahead of the Christmas holiday.

They said: “Parents will undoubtedly vote with their feet and children will be kept at home.

"That choice will not be afforded to school staff if school leaders are not supported in closing school sites.

"No direction from the government on this issue risks large numbers of families making their own decision to take children out of school and once again will result in a mixed economy across Wales, with local authorities making their own decisions based on local circumstances.”