SCHOOLS in Wales are expected to return to face-to-face learning after the Christmas holidays, Vaughan Gething has said.

Last week, minister for education Kirsty Williams confirmed secondary schools in Wales would switch to online learning for the final week of term as part of a “national effort to reduce transmission of the coronavirus”, and many local authorities made the decision to close primary schools for the final few days.

When asked by the South Wales Argus whether it was now purely a hope that schools would return to in-person teaching, Mr Gething dismissed the idea, saying there "isn’t a public health case to close schools."

READ MORE:

"No, it’s our expectation we’ll have face-to-face learning in schools," he said.

"We’ve been really clear that in primary schools there isn’t a public health rationale for closing them.

"There may be individual instances if the staff are not available, if there’s an outbreak amongst the staff group or if they are all self-isolating, you couldn’t run face-to-face learning.

"That’s an individual circumstance, but generally there isn’t a public health case to close schools and if you do, there’s a direct impact on essential staff.

"So even if we are in a firebreak or lockdown period, if you have primary schools closed, it isn’t just frontline health and social care workers - think about food, retail, essential services - where lots of working parents will need the schools to operate to allow them to work.

"For secondary schools, we still want our schools to be operating as normally as possible.

"We do know that if we are moving into January, we are not going to anticipate a large community mixing event in the way that Christmas we expect will be, regardless of the rules.

"We also know that it has a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of children and young people if their secondary schools are not operating in a normal manner.

"That’s why the choice we have made is extraordinary for this week."

On Monday, Mr Gething and education minister Kirsty Williams announced a plan for serial testing in schools.

Under the new plans, pupils and staff identified as close contacts of someone who has Covid-19 would be asked to either self-isolate as normal or to take a lateral flow test at the start of the school day for the duration of the self-isolation period.

Those who test negative would continue attending school as normal, those who test positive would be required to self-isolate and book a confirmatory test.

"The serial testing that I’ve announced jointly with the education minister should give people more confidence they can return to an environment that is safe," said Mr Gething. "Safe for the learners and safe for staff as well.

"We are working through that with school and other education leaders, we are working through that with school communities.

"I hope people will see that [the] deliberate choice we are making highlights the value this government places on education and highlights our desire to make sure everyone has what they need to return to learning in that secondary school environment."